MindTalks

Logo Mindtalks

...gemeinschaftlich organisiert von:

Dr. Udo Ernst (Fachbereich 1, Computational Neurophysics Lab)

Prof. Dr. Olivia Masseck (Fachbereich 2, Synthetic Biology)

Prof. Dr. Tanja Schultz (Fachbereich 3, Cognitive Systems Lab)

gefördert von:

Logo Iris und Hartmut Jürgens Stiftung

Kontakt:

Agnes Janßen (ajanssen@neuro.uni-bremen.de)

Was macht unser Gehirn so flexibel? Welche Mechanismen ermöglichen uns, so scheinbar mühelos die Unmengen an sensorischen Information zu verarbeiten, die jede Sekunde auf uns einströmen? Wie etabliert man eine effiziente und adaptive Kommunikation zwischen Mensch und Maschine?

Mit einer öffentlichen Vortragsreihe präsentieren und diskutieren wir allgemeinverständlich interdisziplinäre Ansätze in der Hirnforschung. In einem Wechsel aus internationalen, nationalen und lokalen Beiträgen stellen wir ein buntes Spektrum an Forschungshighlights aus Bremen und "umzu" vor.
 
Erfahren Sie vor Ort, wie die wissenschaftliche Zusammenarbeit zwischen verschiedenen Disziplinen zu einem vertiefenden Verständnis der Funktion des Gehirns beiträgt. Nehmen Sie am wissenschaftlichen Gedankenaustausch der beteiligten Institute teil, und sprechen Sie persönlich mit den Forschern, die am Gehirn und "umzu" interessiert sind!    

Wir freuen uns auf Ihre/Eure Teilnahme!

Logo Mindday
Termine

04.12.2023 | 16:00 - 17:30 

Raum 2030, Cognium, Hochschulring 18

Coding of social odors in the hippocampus and beyond

Prof. Dr. Sami Hassan

While the hippocampus is a crucial brain region for social memory, the memory of conspecific interactions, the precise mechanisms underlying the integration of social sensory cues with contextual information for the formation of episodic social memories are still unclear. This seminar examines the mechanisms of social sensory information processing by the hippocampus and presents a series of experiments using high-resolution imaging of populations of hippocampal neurons in awake mice exposed to social and non-social odors. These experiments show for the first time specific and robust social olfactory responses to individual conspecifics by neurons in a small subregion of the hippocampus called CA2. Statistical analysis shows that these responses are flexibly modulated during associative learning with social odor and reward, and optogenetic experiments show that CA2 activity is important for this learning. Finally, the experiments show that the CA2 neuronal activity space contains a higher-order structure that allows generalization along the categories of reward and social relevance, a feature that we find to be critically altered in a genetic mouse model of neuropsychiatric disease. This finding positions the genetic mouse model as well as the experimental paradigm as a promising avenue to investigate innovative therapeutic modalities targeting abnormalities in social cognition associated with neuropsychiatric disorders.


11.12.2023 | 16:00 - 17:30 

Raum 2030, Cognium, Hochschulring 18

Neural and behavioural mechanisms of attention in live social interactions

Prof. Dr. Louisa Kulke

Attention is affected by the social context we are in: Adults enjoy looking at other people when they watch television at home, but they will inhibit themselves from staring at strangers in a crowded elevator.

The current talk compares attention in live interactions, video-chats and videos. It shows, firstly, that eye movements significantly differ between live interactions and videos: Adults look significantly less at a stranger in a live social situations than in a video. This lack of gaze is not due to disinterest. Co-registration of eye-tracking and EEG allowed us to measure neural responses related to attention, showing comparable attentiveness in live social situations as when watching a videos, even though gaze patterns differ. This suggests that people inhibit their gaze to strangers in live social situations, even if they are interested in them.

People’s attention in social situations can depend on different factors. Firstly, it can depend on age. We could demonstrate that the social inhibition of gaze already exists in infancy and develops until early childhood. Secondly, it may depend on individual differences. We will summarize findings from clinical populations with autism and anxiety disorders. Thirdly, it can depend on the interaction partner, whose emotions may play a role. The talk will summarize findings regarding emotion effects in live interactions, videochats and videos. Furthermore, technology may play a role. We will present a study investigating gaze to android robots compared to humans.

In summary, attention is strongly influenced by social context and this effect develops with age.


18.12.2023 | 16:00 - 17:30 

Raum 2030, Cognium, Hochschulring 18

The neuronal mechanisms of change detection and reaction times

Dr. Detlef Wegener

The ability to rapidly perceive and process changes in the external environment and to generate a fast and appropriate motor response is one of the crucial driving forces of animal evolution. For prey animals, it enhances the likelihood of escaping from predators, while for predators, it increases the chances of successfully capturing prey. As a consequence, the underlying physiological mechanisms have become increasingly refined throughout evolution. In some specialists, they have developed into nearly perfect form.

Consequently, the underlying neural mechanisms of change detection represent one of the fundamental encoding principles of nervous systems, including the brains of primates. Today's MIND-Talk focuses on describing the neural basis of motion change detection, from the level of individual cells in visual cortex to population coding. It is demonstrated that cognitive processes in the brain have a direct impact on change detection and crucially determine how quickly motor responses to such changes can occur. Although starting with the analysis of neuronal firing rates, the quest for the coding of change detection reveals the significant importance of the fine temporal dynamics of neural activity for comprehending the interaction among distinct neuron populations and, ultimately, for the behavior generated.


15.01.2024 | 16:00 - 17:30 

Raum 2030, Cognium, Hochschulring 18

The more the merrier: Nature-inspired broadband visual stimuli improve sensory perception

Prof. Dr. Björn Kampa

Natural scenes are composed of complex distributions of visual features that drive neural response patterns and shape visual perception. However, most stimuli that are commonly used in vision research only reveal neural responses to single features, such as a specific stimulus orientation. How larger feature distributions affect neural responses and visual perception is therefore poorly understood. To address this question, we presented broadband visual stimuli with parametrically-controlled bandwidth of stimulus orientations and spatial frequencies to awake mice while recording the activity of neural populations in the primary visual cortex with two-photon imaging. Matching the orientation bandwidth of broadband stimuli to naturalistic images strongly increased neural responses and improved feature discrimination performance. Correspondingly, increasing orientation bandwidth also improved the performance of mice in a visual discrimination task. Our results strongly suggest that the visual system is tuned to the feature distributions of naturalistic visual inputs, with broader feature distributions driving more robust neural responses and enhanced visual perception.


22.01.2024 | 16:00 - 17:30 

Raum 2030, Cognium, Hochschulring 18

Dissecting mechanisms mediating neurotransmitter release from sensory cells in the gut epithelium

Prof. Dr. Cordelia Imig
 

Enteroendocrine cells (EECs) are sensory secretory cells in the gut epithelium that release peptide hormones and neurotransmitters in response to changes in the gut milieu. These cells are positioned at the interface between the body and the environment and therefore form an important relay station for sensory information transmitted along the microbiome-gut-brain-axis. Interestingly, mouse EECs express components of the neuronal molecular neurotransmitter release machinery and are positioned close to neuronal processes, indicating fast and directed cell-to-cell communication reminiscent of that at synaptic junctions between neurons in the brain. Our research goal is to dissect the molecular mechanisms that mediate signaling by distinct ECC subtypes and to thereby contribute to a better understanding of how EEC function regulates physiology, behaviour, and metabolism in health and disease.


29.01.2024 | 16:00 - 17:30 

Haus der Wissenschaft, Sandstraße 4/5, Olbers-Saal

Wie wir Sprache in Alltagssituation besser verstehen: Vom gesunden Ohr bis zum Hörimplantat

Prof. Dr. Andreas Radeloff

Weshalb können wir unsere Gesprächspartner verstehen, selbst wenn deren Stimme leiser ist als die Umgebungsgeräusche? Wieso wissen wir sofort, wo das Telefon liegt, das gerade klingelt? Wie funktionieren Hörimplantate für ertaubte Menschen?

Das Hörvermögen ist einer unserer faszinierendsten Sinne und zugleich Grundlage für die akustische Kommunikation und Voraussetzung für den Lautspracherwerb. Der heutige Vortrag wird in allgemeinverständlicher Form verschiedene Aspekte rund um das gesunde und erkrankte Hörsystem erklären. Es werden  aktuelle Behandlungsstrategien der Schwerhörigkeit bis hin zu implantierbaren Systemen aufgezeigt.  Schließlich werden aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse zum Zusammenhang zwischen Schwerhörigkeit und Demenz erläutert und erklärt, wie jede/r das eigene Risiko vermindern kann.

 

Die Vorträge werden größtenteils auf Englisch gehalten (siehe Titel).

Für aktuelle Benachrichtigungen können Sie sich gerne in unsere Mailingliste eintragen lassen. Kontaktieren Sie dazu bitte Agnes Janßen: ajanssen@neuro.uni-bremen.de