Ioana and Robert join TWiN to discuss their work demonstrating that rodents acquire maternal behavior by social transmission from an experienced mother to a virgin female how to care for a litter via endogenous oxytocin.
Bruce Carter joins TWiN to discuss the peripheral nervous system: the development of nerves that convey sensory information like touch from the tips of your toes to the brain, and Schwann cells, which are necessary for ensuring that those sensory signals are sustained as they travel long distances to the brain.
TWiN explains how anti-DNA antibodies present in lupus patients bind to GluN2A-containing NMDA receptors, act as positive allosteric modulators, and impair spatial memory.
TWiN explores a study of hallucination-like perception in mice which supports the idea that hallucinations arise as faulty perceptual inferences due to elevated dopamine in the striatum.
While perceptual constancy requires the brain to maintain a stable representation of sensory input, TWiN explores a study showing that odor-evoked responses in the olfactory cortex drift over periods of days to weeks.
On this episode, Vivianne gives a primer on glial cells, with the goal of thinking about the central nervous system holistically and appreciating the different cell types that contribute to its function.
Mauro Costa-Mattioli joins TWiN to discuss how his laboratory dissects the contribution of host genetics and the microbiome in complex neurodevelopment disorders such as autism spectrum disorders.
TWiN 17: Worms see the light with Michael Nitabach
- April 21, 2021
- Tagged as: C. elegans, light sensing, nematode, nervous system, neurology, neuroscience, opsin, vision
Michael Nitabach joins TWiN to discuss the finding that the nematode C. elegans, which do not have eyes, can discriminate between colors to guide foraging decisions and move them away from harmful bacteria that produce a blue-pigment toxin.
Stefano joins TWiN to discuss his work on understanding genomic decoding of neuronal depolarization by stimulus-specific transcriptional regulators.
Helen joins TWiN to discuss her work on understanding how the maternal microbiome modulates fetal neurodevelopment in mice.