Dartmouth Events

Please join us in Moore BO3 on Friday, May 3, 2019, at 4 p.m., as Christopher Moore, PhD, Associate Director of the Carney Institute of Brain Science and Professor of Neuroscience at Brown University, presents “A New Gamma Clock Cell? (and, Snapshot of Novel Glowing Methods for Brain Control and Imaging).”

Abstract:
Our lab studies the mechanisms and meaning of brain dynamics, changes in computation on the timescale milliseconds to seconds that enable context-dependent behavior. 
I will first provide a quick overview of new methods we are creating for in vivo studies using bioluminescence to drive and index neural activity. We are actively disseminating these tools and knowledge about how to use them (www.bioluminescencehub.org). 

I will then describe a series of studies testing the relevance of gamma oscillations for sensory processing.  In our prior studies, we found that optogenetic stimulation of fast-spiking interneurons (FS) in primary sensory neocortex can generate a realistic gamma, and that this form of gamma induction can enhance perceptual performance.

A prominent proposal regarding gamma is that it enables processing by synchronizing the spiking of disparate neurons, ‘binding' a coherent percept across distance in the brain.  A significant problem with this hypothesis is that FS are typically highly sensory responsive. If the arrival of sensory information to a local circuit drives FS, these cells cannot provide the independent temporal structure necessary for coordination across the brain.

We recently discovered a new FS subtype that fires at gamma intervals, does so with high regularity, and is not sensory responsive.  Further, gamma expression, and firing periodicity, in these FS strongly predicts perceptual success: The stronger their gamma, the better the performance. This new cell type is well-positioned to provide a context-dependent ‘clock’ that can coordinate timing and improve context-dependent information processing.

A reception will follow outside of Moore 202.