Student Seminars

Seminars are a place where students share their knowledge on a certain topic with the rest of the student body. Students organize their own presentation and guide a discussion seminar on a topic that they’ve explored and is of interest to them. Presentations are often on topics that are not covered in the traditional university curriculum but are important areas of modern neuroscience research.

Student Seminar – Parity, APOE4, and Alzheimer’s Disease

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Next Monday, November 19th from 5:30-6:30 we will be having a student seminar by our own VP Academic, Nicole Minielly! Here is a short intro to her presentation:

Come join us for a student run seminar discussing Alzheimer’s disease, led by fourth year Behavioural Neuroscience student, Nicole Minielly. We will begin this seminar with a general overview of Alzheimer’s pathology and prevalence. Following this, we will be discussing past research examining how pregnancy and genetic predispositions increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline. We will also review ongoing and past research examining this phenomenon in rodent models.

Student Seminar – Impaired Glutamate Signalling in the Excitotoxic Phenotype of Huntington’s Disease

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Come join us for a student seminar led by Eden Dubchak discussing the involvement of impaired glutamate signalling in the excitotoxic phenotype of Huntington’s Disease. Huntington’s Disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that produces cognitive, motor and psychiatric symptoms. Excitotoxicity, which is the damage or death of neurons caused by excessive overstimulation by an excitatory neurotransmitter, has been identified as a major pathway by which Huntington’s Disease induces neurodegeneration. The seminar will provide a brief overview of Huntington’s Disease, the evidence for excitoxicity as a pathogenic mechanism, the possible mechanisms behind impaired glutamate signaling, and how our understanding of the excitotoxic phenotype may still be incomplete.

Student Seminar – Infants From Families With Dogs Show Enhanced Communicative Development

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We hope you’ve been having a great week! We are very excited to have our first student seminar next Monday October 29th from 5:30-6:30 in IKB 185. Our very own president, Mary Zhao, will be presenting on some her research involving babies and puppies- what could be better? Here is a short intro about what to look forward to:

Come join us for a student seminar led by Mary Zhao discussing the effects of early exposure to non-human vocalizations (specifically, dog barks) on language development in infants. Understanding social-communicative intent, by following a point or gaze, is a key early milestone in infants. It underlies later joint attention and is often a predictor of subsequent language development. It is currently unclear what boosts early point and gaze understanding, but preliminary research is showing that early exposure to pet dogs supports both. During the seminar, we will be taking a deeper look into how human coevolution with dogs may have changed the way the human brain processes language.

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.

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.