Detailed Schedule

BARRELS XXI

November 13-14, 2008

Charles Commons , Johns Hopkins University

Sponsored by NINDS

Thursday, November 13

8:30 - 8:35                    Welcome   Joshua C. Brumberg, Queens College , CUNY

Introduction to local area  Mary Ann Wilson, Johns Hopkins University

8:35 – 11:00                Coding in the Somatosensory System

8:35 - 8:45                   Introduction/Overview           

8:45 - 9:15                   Mathew Diamond,  ISSI, Trieste , Italy
                                    Transformation from whisker motion to object representation

9:15 - 9:45                   Christiane Vahle-Hinz, University Medical Center Hamburg , Germany
                                     Fast oscillations and sensory processing in the somatosensory cortex

9:45 - 10:15                 Adrienne Fairhall, University of Washington        
                                    Adaptive coding in somatosensory cortex

10:15 – 10:30              Daniel Feldman, UC Berkley
                                    Neural coding of slip-stick events during voluntary whisking on surfaces

10:30 – 10:45              Christopher Moore,  MIT

The Vibrissa Natural Scene: An Initial Description of Micromotions Generated by Free: Behavioral Contact and the Role of Biomechanics in Shaping Transduction

10:45-11:00                 Discussion

11:00 – 11:15               Coffee break

11:15 –12:30               SHORT PLATFORM TALKS 1

                                    Moderator:

11:15–11:30                *Ayan Ghoshal, Pierre Pouget, Maria Popescu and Ford Ebner

Vanderbilt University

Early Sensory Deprivation Blocks the Development of Neuronal Synchrony in

Barrel Cortex

11:30 –11:45               *Randy M. Bruno^1,2, Thomas T.G. Hahn¹, Damian J. Wallace¹,

Christiaan P.J. de Kock¹, and Bert Sakmann^1,3

¹ Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany,
²Columbia University, ³Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany

Sensory experience alters specific branches of individual corticocortical axons during development

11:45 –12:00               Jiao Y¹, Zhang C¹, Sakata, K² , Lu B², *Sun QQ¹.

¹University of Wyoming ²National Institute of Child Health and Human

Development

Sensory activity regulates BDNF expression and maturation of cortical

inhibitory and excitatory circuits in barrel cortex

12:00 –12:15               Manisha Chugh, Ziauddin Darokhan, Rahul Chaudhary and *V. Rema

                                     National Brain Research Centre, Haryana , India

Injury-induced plasticity in the barrel cortex of adult rats

12:15-12:30                 Discussion

12:30 – 2:00                Lunch Break   

2:00-2:15                     Remembrance of Wally Welker, Ph.D.

                                    H. Philip Zeigler, Hunter College , CUNY

                                    Thomas A. Woolsey, Washington University , St. Louis

2:15 – 4:00                  SHORT PLATFORM TALKS 2

                                    Moderator:

2:15 - 2:30                   *D. N. Hill, J. C. Curtis and D. Kleinfeld,

UC San Diego

                                    The cortical representation of muscle activation in the control of whisking

2:30 - 2:45                   Simony E¹, Bagdasarian K¹, Herfst L², Brecht M², Ahissar E¹. and *Golomb D³

                                    Control of whisker movement by individual spikes: Temporal integration

and spatial coupling.

¹Department of Neurobiology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, ²Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Humboldt University Berlin, ³Department of Physiology and Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva, Israel

2:45– 3:00                   *Maik C. Stüttgen Cornelius Schwarz

                                    Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research

Choice probability in rat barrel cortex

3:00 – 3:15                  *Towal RB and Hartmann MJZ

Northwestern University

Measurement of whisker contacts during natural exploratory behaviors:

Do neighboring whiskers explore overlapping spaces?

3:15 - 3:30                   *Steven Hsiao, Lauren Berryman

                                    Johns Hopkins University

                                    Representation of object size in the primate somatosensory system

3:30 – 3:45                  Discussion

3:45 – 4:00                  Break

4:00 – 4:30                  Cerebellar Loops with the Cerebral Cortex: Circuits for Movement,

Cognition, and Perception

Peter Strick, University of Pittsburgh , USA

4:30 – 4:40                  Discussion

4:40 – 4:45                  Break

4:45 – 5:30                  SHORT PLATFORM TALKS 3

                                    Moderator:

4:45 – 5:00                  *Chia-Chien Chen¹, Svetlana Abrams², Alex Pinhas², and Joshua C.

Brumberg^1,2

¹The Graduate Center , City University of New York , ²Queens College ,

City University of New York

Morphological Heterogeneity of the Layer VI Neurons in Mouse Barrel

Cortex

5:00 – 5:15                  *Moritz Helmstaedter, Kevin L Briggman, Winfried Denk

                                    Max-Planck Insitute for Medical Research, Heidelberg , Germany

Reconstruction of Neuronal Processes from Serial Blockface Scanning Electron Microscopy Data using Machine Learning

5:15 – 5:30                  Discussion

5:30                             Poster Session

6:30                             Dinner

Friday November 14

8:35 – 10:35                The Function of the Posterior Medial (POm) Thalamic Nucleus

8:35 – 8:45                  Introduction/Overview           

8:45 – 9:15                  Martin Deschenes, Laval University, Canada

                                    Parallel pathways of vibrissal information processing: a view from the

                                    thalamus.  

9:15 – 9:45                  Asaf Keller, University of Maryland Medical School

                                    The Posterior Thalamic Nucleus: Parallel Processing of Pain and Tactile

                                    Inputs

9:45 -10:15                  Ehud Ahissar, Weizmann Institute, Israel

A Systems View of POm Function

                                    Inputs

10:15 – 10:35              Discussion

10:35 – 10:50              Coffee Break

10:50 – 12:00              SHORT PLATFORM TALKS 4

                                    Moderator:

10:50-11:05                 Quist BW¹ and Hartmann MJZ^1,2

¹Department of Biomedical Engineering, ²Department of Mechanical

Engineering, Northwestern University

Vibrissal mechanics: relations between intrinsic whisker curvature, axial force, and tip contact detection

11:05 - 11:20               *Acsády L., Giber K., Köll M., Bokor H. and Nusser Z.
Institute of Experimental Medicine, Budapest , Hungary

                                    Input-specific localization of A-type potassium channels in the

somatosensory thalamus.

11:20 - 11:35               *Michael J. Pesavento, David J Pinto

                                    University of Rochester School of Medicine

Barrel response sensitivity depends on both network interactions and the

response properties of individual barrel neurons.

11:35 - 11:50               Yunyong Ma, Hang Hu and *Ariel Agmon

West Virginia University

Sub-Millisecond Synchrony of Firing Between Pairs of Layer 4 Interneurons During Network Activity In Vitro

11:50-12:00                 Discussion

12:00 – 1:15                Lunch

                                    Annual Business meeting (Joshua C. Brumberg, Queens College , CUNY)

1:15 – 2:30                  SHORT PLATFORM TALKS 5

                                    Moderator:

1:15 - 1:30                   Rony Azouz & Eran Lottem

Ben-Gurion University , Israel .
Transmission of Tactile Information Through Passive Whisker Movements

1:30 - 1:45                   G. Foffani(1,2), M. L. Morales-Botello(1), J. Aguilar(1)

¹Hospital Nacional de Parapléjicos, SESCAM, Toledo, Spain ; ²Drexel

University
Spike-timing information in the rat thalamic ventrobasal complex

1:45 - 2:00                   V. Khatri¹, R. Bermejo², H. P. Zeigler²

¹Vanderbilt University , ² Hunter College

Encoding the kinematics of self-generated whisker movements: a comparison of ventral posterior medial thalamic neurons to their trigeminal ganglion inputs

2:00 – 2:30                  Discussion

2:30 – 2:45                   Coffee Break

2:45 – 4:55                  Development of Projections To and From Barrel Cortex

2:45 --2:55                   Introduction/Overview            

2:55 – 3:25                  Pat Gaspar,  INSERM, France

Role of the rim1 and rim2 genes in the development of barrel cortex

4:25 - 4:55                   Discussion

5:00                              Adjourn

The Barrels XXI Organizing Committee: