All posts by alireza kamyabi

Student Seminar – Information Processing in the Brain: From Single Neurons to Neural Circuits

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Join us for UNC’s third Student Seminar of the year this week!

Time: Thursday March 22 @ 5:30 PM
Location: The Nest – Kingsmill Forum on the 4th floor
Student Presenter: Alireza Kamyabi
Title: “Information Processing in the Brain: From Single Neurons to Neural Circuits”
Snacks and Coffee will be provided.

In this seminar, we will trace the advancement of neuroscience from the study of single neuron to neural circuits and explore an exciting and emerging topic in neuroscience that is not extensively covered in the current undergraduate curriculum; namely the emergent properties of neural circuits and how behaviour is specified by distinct neuronal populations. As example, we will look at neural circuits governing innate social behaviours and memory and introduce the experimental techniques used to study large neural populations.

Dr. Bita Moghadam – Impact of Anxiety on Prefrontal Cortex Encoding of Cognitive Flexibility

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This week, we’ll be holding another Journal Club meeting on Thursday, February 8th from 5:30-6:30pm at the Michael Kingsmill Forum in the UBC Nest (4th floor). We’ll be taking a look at a review paper by Bita Moghaddam (from the Oregon Health and Science University) titled, “Impact of Anxiety on Prefrontal Cortex Encoding of Cognitive Flexibility” (attached below). The paper takes a look at the negative effects of anxiety on cognitive flexibility and decision-making. We will be reviewing this paper to in our prepration for Dr. Moghaddam’s talk (titled “Translation of anxiety into actions by prefrontal cortex”) at the Neuroscience Research Colloquia at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health this Friday, February 9th at 11:00am.

Dr. Hanchuan Peng – Allen Brain Institute : Large-scale brain imaging and connectivity data

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Next week, on Friday February 2nd, DMCBH Neuroscience Colloquium is hosting Dr. Hanchaun Peng from the Allen Brain Institute to talk about large-scale brain imaging and connectivity datasets. In next week’s journal club will on (Thursday, February 1) we’ll meet in the Kingsmill Forum (4th floor in The Nest, UBC) at 5:30 PM, to discuss large-scale brain imaging and the connectome. 

To get familiar with the topic of Dr. Peng’s talk and the work of the Allen Brain Institute, we’ll be covering this paper from the Allen Brain Institute team in our journal club: Oh, S.,… Zeng, H. (2014). A mesoscale connectome of the mouse brain. Nature, 508(7495), 207–214.

The journal club is open to all students (undergraduates and graduates). Please read the article and join us for a discussion on how and whether a connectome is useful in understanding neural circuit function. For an interesting  background read on this much-debated issue, you can take a look at whether the C.Elegens connectome has been useful in explaining this worm’s behaviour (article from the Scientific American) 

The Allen Brain Institute is actively working on large-scale characterization and mapping of the mouse brain and they’ve created many helpful visualization of the mouse brain atlas  – we’ll also touch on these in the journal club, in case they might be helpful in your research projects.

Present, Attend or Volunteer at the 2018 UBC Undergraduate Neuroscience Conference

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 UNC is holding open office hours on Thursday Nov 30, 2017 from 5:00-6:30PM at BUCH B219 for all students interested in presenting or volunteering at the 2018 Undergraduate Neuroscience Conference at UBC. 

For interested presenter’s: we’ll be available to answer all of your questions about presenting at the conference. We’ll be happy to point you to resources that can get you started with working on your poster or oral presentation and can help in getting you ready to present at the conference! We know it can be a little stressful at first – but don’t let yourself get discouraged from presenting. Come talk to us on Thursday and we can help with the preparation so you proudly showcase your work to faculty and students!

For Interested Volunteers: Take a look at our UNC 2018 – Volunteer Package. Deadline to sign up as a volunteer is Thursday, Nov 30 by 5PM (please make sure to come in at our office hours at 5PM in Buchanan B219 when you sign up)

UNC is looking to put together a committee of volunteers to help with the planning and execution of the 2018 UBC Undergraduate Neuroscience Conference. This year, the UBC Undergraduate Neuroscience Conference will be happening on January 25th, 2018. As a volunteer, you will have the opportunity to be a part of running the one and only neuroscience conference at UBC, network with peers and esteemed faculty members, and earn some valuable volunteer hours (written record provided)! 

Don’t hesitate to email us at ubcneuroscienceclub@gmail.com if you have any questions! You can also reach us at our Facebook Page: UBC Neuroscience Club. 

Student Seminar – Neural Circuits of Mating and Aggression in Mice

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The UNC will have its second Student Seminar of the year this week – Thursday, Nov 16 2017 @ Buchanan B219 from 5:30-6:30. The topic will be Neural Circuits of Mating and Aggression in Mice – presented by Alireza Kamyabi. Coffee and cookies will be served!

At the seminar we’ll discuss how mating and aggression are regulated and governed by distinct neuronal populations that together make up the functional neural circuits responsible for detecting and responding appropriately to social cues (e.g. pheromones). Because of their ubiquitousness in the animal kingdom and male-female differences, aggression and mating can provide valuable insights into how the brain controls and regulates behavioural responses in responses to different cues.  The seminar will focus on the neural mechanisms underlying appetitive and consummatory phases of mating and aggressive behaviours – from odour detection of pheromones to motor areas underlying the execution of the behaviour. 

Nov 2nd, Journal Club: Bring an article of your choosing to share

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This week UNC will be hosting an open Journal Club on Thursday, November 2nd from 5:30pm-6:30pm in BUCH B219. Bring in an article (that has applications to Neuroscience) and give a brief 10-15 minute presentation summarizing its methods and findings! It’ll be a great opportunity to share your interests to your peers and practice your presentation skills. Or, if you don’t want to present, you’re still welcome to come and hear others discuss some awesome Neuroscience research! Hope to see you on Thursday.

 

Oct 26, Journal Club: Neural Substrate behind Social Dominance in Mice

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Ever wonder how Charlie Sheen keeps #winning? Ever question the validity behind DJ Khaled’s “All I do is win, win, win, no matter what”?

Turns out, their history of winning is actually justifed by Neuroscience research! Zhou et. al have found that a history of winning remodels the thalamo-PFC circuit to reinforce social dominance. In other words, those who win are likely to win again!

To learn more about the Neuroscience behind winning and social dominance, come out to UNC’s Journal Club meeting this Thursday in BUCH B219 from 5:30-6:30pm. You can find the paper below

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