This is a drop-in session where CCV staff members will be available to answer questions about Brown’s research computing resources (Oscar, Stronghold, Globus) and help with any high-performance computing (HPC) issues you might have.

Join the Carney Institute for its Brain Science External Postdoc Seminar Series (BrainExPo), featuring Carl Schoonover and Andrew Fink, postdoctoral fellows at Columbia University.

The primary olfactory cortex has traditionally been hypothesized to establish the identity of odorants. Schoonover and Fink will discuss how their research has shown that after just a few weeks odor responses bear little resemblance to their original form, raising basic questions about the role of this brain region in olfactory perception.

Abstract

We have discovered that in the rodent primary olfactory cortex (piriform) the pattern of neural activity evoked by a smell changes with the passage of time. These changes, which unfold absent a task or learning paradigm, accumulate to such an extent that after just a few weeks odor responses bear little resemblance to their original form. The piriform has been traditionally hypothesized to establish the identity of odorants. Our observations have forced us to radically reconsider the role of this vast brain region in olfactory perception. We propose that the piriform operates instead as a flexible learning system, a ‘scratch pad’ that continually learns and continually overwrites itself. This poses the problem of how transient memory traces can subsequently be stored over long timescales.

These results also raise the question of what the piriform learns. We have designed a behavioral assay that provides a sensitive readout of whether mice expect a given sensory event. Using this assay, we have demonstrated that mice learn the identity, order and precise timing of elements in a sequence of neutral odorants, A–>B, without reward or punishment. Simultaneous recordings in naïve primary olfactory cortex (piriform) show strong and distinct responses to both A and B. These diminish with experience in a manner that tracks these expectations: predictable cues, such as B in the A–>B sequence, evoke hardly any response in experienced animals. This does not reflect simple adaptation. When B is presented alone, it elicits robust activation. When B is omitted, and A is presented alone, piriform exhibits vigorous activity at the precise moment when the animal, expecting odor B, encounters nothing. Thus, when the external world conforms to expectation, piriform is relatively quiescent, but any departure from the expected results in vigorous activation. The biological learning mechanisms that generate this predictive activity, a feature more commonly encountered in higher order cortices, can be readily studied and probed in a circuit only two synapses from the sensory periphery.

This is a drop-in session where CCV staff members will be available to answer questions about Brown’s research computing resources (Oscar, Stronghold, Globus) and help with any high-performance computing (HPC) issues you might have.

Join Carney’s Center for the Neurobiology of Cells and Circuits for a faculty chalk talk featuring Nicolas Fawzi, associate professor of molecular biology, cell biology and biotechnology.

Please note, this event is open to faculty members only.

What does love do to our brains? Why do we fall in love? Why do we stay in love, and what makes us fall out of love?

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and to mark the occasion, the Carney Institute is holding a conversation about how the brain is affected by love, featuring two Brown University scientists who study emotion and motivation.

Debbie Yee, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral fellow in cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences investigating the neural and computational mechanisms of interactions between motivation/affective processes, cognitive control and value-based decision-making.

Joey Heffner is a Ph.D. candidate in psychology investigating emotions. He received a graduate award in 2020 from the Carney Institute for a project to understand when and how emotions facilitate or impair social decision-making.

This conversation will be moderated by Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director of the Carney Institute, and Christopher Moore, associate director of the Carney Institute.

The Advance-CTR Translational Research Seminar Series showcases clinical and translational research from across Rhode Island. Presentations, followed by feedback, allow presenters the opportunity to refine and strengthen their research. Seminars are held virtually on the second Thursday of each month.

This month:

• Steve Kogut, PhD, MBA, Title TBA
• Shaolei Lu, MD, PhD, Title TBA

This is a drop-in session where CCV staff members will be available to answer questions about Brown’s research computing resources (Oscar, Stronghold, Globus) and help with any high-performance computing (HPC) issues you might have.

This is a drop-in session where CCV staff members will be available to answer questions about Brown’s research computing resources (Oscar, Stronghold, Globus) and help with any high-performance computing (HPC) issues you might have.

This is a drop-in session where CCV staff members will be available to answer questions about Brown’s research computing resources (Oscar, Stronghold, Globus) and help with any high-performance computing (HPC) issues you might have.

Join Carney’s Center for the Neurobiology of Cells and Circuits for a faculty chalk talk featuring Sonia Mayoral, Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Assistant Professor of Brain Science.

Please note, this event is open to faculty members only.

Join Carney’s Center for the Neurobiology of Cells and Circuits for a faculty chalk talk featuring Judy Liu, Sidney A. Fox and Dorothea Doctors Fox Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, associate professor of neurology, associate professor of molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry.

Please note, this event is open to faculty members only.

Join Carney’s Center for the Neurobiology of Cells and Circuits for a faculty chalk talk featuring Ahmed Abdelfattah, Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Assistant Professor of Brain Science.

Please note, this event is open to faculty members only.