Category Archives: Neuroscience

Making Memories: The Role of Activity-Dependent CRTC1 in Synapse-to-Nucleus Signaling

posted by

How does a memory come to be With so many synapses in a dendritic tree? With umpteen connections betwixt cells, How does a nucleus come to tell When and which genes transcribed will be Sufficient to mediate plasticity? The Martin Lab at UCLA Believes that they have found a way. When transmitter binding allows calcium […]

»»

How mice decide: Stimulation of striatal D1 and D2 neurons bias choice in opposite ways

posted by

“It is our choices, Harry, that show us what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”  –Dumbledore “We are our choices.” –Jean-Paul Sartre  The question of how animals make decisions based upon prior experiences has plagued neuroscience since the field’s inception. An animal wants to make a decision in such a manner that it […]

»»

Noise vs song, how are naturalistic stimuli processed in the brain?

posted by

One problem encountered in researching sensory systems is that classical stimuli used to probe a sensory system are often not representative of what that system might encounter in the real world. Furthermore it has been difficult to explain the response of neurons to such naturalistic stimuli (such as natural scenes, faces, or speech)  based solely […]

»»

Joaquín Fuster: Working Memory, Cognits, and the Perception-Action Cycle

posted by

In the 1920s, Jakob von Uexküll (the theorist responsible for the notion of umwelt) described the sensory-motor cycle through which an animal modifies the environment, thereby modifying its own perception of the environment, which leads to further action upon the environment, and so forth, until a particular goal is achieved (Fig. 1a).   In the primitive animal, […]

»»

Forming Functional Synapses

posted by

Since the discovery of long-term potentiation by Lomo and Bliss in 1973, neuroscientists have been searching for additional evidence of neuronal change based on experience. The concept of synaptic plasticity – the brain’s ability to change and adapt as a result of incoming information – is not new to the neuroscience field. But now, with […]

»»
June 02

When Marmosets Call

posted by

Inhabiting a complex and noisy environment in the Brazilian forest, the common marmoset faces a continuous challenge to successful vocal communication. Much like having a conversation in Grand Central Station at rush hour, the marmoset has to strategically monitor its acoustic context and structure its calls accordingly. Understanding how these animals use various cortical systems […]

»»