Dr. Cris Niell: Neural circuits for natural vision

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

Natural visual processing entails a complex interplay between sensory input, behavioral context, and on-going brain dynamics. Our lab seeks to understand how these processes give rise to goal-directed visual behaviors, by exploring the neural circuits mediating ethologically relevant behaviors that laboratory mice perform, including prey capture and distance estimation. We are also implementing novel experimental […]


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Dr. Keri Martinowich: Spatially-resolved molecular approaches for understanding human brain circuits and disease vulnerability

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

This talk will highlight recent efforts to generate and analyze spatially resolved molecular datasets to better understand structure–function relationships in the human brain, particularly in the context of complex brain disorders. While single-cell and single-nucleus sequencing approaches have rapidly advanced our ability to define molecularly distinct cell populations, these methods often lack the spatial and […]


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Dr. Stephan Lammel: Neural Dynamics of Dopamine Neurons in Motivated Behavior

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

Despite decades of research on the properties of ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons, the precise information encoded by these cells in reward learning and motivated behavior remains uncertain. In this talk, I will describe recent work investigating two distinct modalities of the midbrain dopamine system at different levels of investigation. First, I will present […]


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Dr. Zachary Pennington: An amygdala-hypothalamic circuit gates stress vulnerability.

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

There is substantial individual variability in how individuals respond to stress, and a major predictor of this variance is the prior experience of stress. Here, I’ll share data showing that prior stress inflates negative valence signals in an amygdala-hypothalamic circuit and increases stress vulnerability.


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Dr. Mark Brandon: Stability and drift in neural representations

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

How does the brain maintain stable internal representations of the world while also remaining flexible enough to learn, adapt, and predict the future?  This is a central question in systems neuroscience.  In this talk, I will present recent work from my lab that addresses this problem at both the level of network dynamics and the […]


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Dr. Kelly Dunn: How Can Differences in Opioid Withdrawal Inform New Treatment Strategies?

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

This presentation will review the need for a precision medicine approach to opioid withdrawal and illustrate how variability in withdrawal symptom expression would inform novel treatment strategies. Differences in withdrawal presentation as a result of illicit fentanyl exposure will be reviewed and results from a randomized trial comparison of a new medication for withdrawal management […]


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Dr. Mypinder Sekhon: Characterizing The Human Dying Process for translational insights into in vivo Brain Ischemia

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

The talk will undertake an overview of the physiology of the human dying process as an in vivo model of brain ischemia physiology. The talk will cover the feasibility of undertaking this work at VGH and the characterization of the physiology of circulatory arrest in humans. Additionally, I will describe preliminary insights into the changes […]


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Dr. Guillaume Dumas: Multi-Brain Neuroscience: from Generative Neurophenomenology to Inter-Personalized Psychiatry

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

Human cognition and mental health do not arise from the brain alone, but from continuous interactions among people, bodies, and social environments. This talk introduces a multi-brain perspective on neuroscience that connects research on consciousness with new directions in psychiatry. Using recent advances that enable multiple brains to be recorded simultaneously, we explore how everyday […]


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Dr. Kelsie Eichel: Building a polarized neuron: from C. elegans to humans

Rudy North Lecture Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver

Neurons are defined by their remarkable polarity, a feature that is highly conserved across most nervous systems. A key neuronal structure, the axon initial segment (AIS), is essential for establishing and maintaining a functional, polarized neuronal architecture. As such, defects in the AIS and a loss of polarity are associated with neurological dysfunction and numerous […]


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