Events

Zoom option if unable to attend in person: Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 91512 289258 Passcode: 289258 In this lecture, I will discuss our group's efforts to deconstruct the psychedelic 'state', drawing on both human and mouse experiments. While dreaming, anesthesia and psychedelics are often considered distinct, I argue that they share […]

Zoom option if unable to attend in person: Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 91512 289258 Passcode: 289258 Numerous drugs have the ability to alter our perception, cognition, and mood. Some of these compounds, such as ketamine and serotonergic psychedelics, have also shown promise as treatment for mental illnesses. The behavioral effects are […]

Zoom option if unable to attend in person: Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 91512 289258 Passcode: 289258 How does the brain process sensory information to generate adaptive behaviors that are innate, yet flexible? My lab investigates this question in the taste system of the fruit fly Drosophila, which offers unique tools to […]

Zoom option if unable to attend in person: Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 91512 289258 Passcode: 289258 Working in the laboratory of the late Hugh McLennan (Department of Physiology, UBC) Stephen Kehl and I discovered that NMDA receptors trigger the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampus.  Since these early experiments, […]

Zoom option if unable to attend in person: Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 91512 289258 Passcode: 289258 Switching between cognitive states is a natural tendency, even for trained experts. To test how cognitive state impacts the relationship between neural activity and behavior, we measured cortex-wide neural activity during decision-making in mice. Task […]

Zoom option if unable to attend in person: Zoom link here (click on “Join a meeting”) Meeting ID: 91512 289258 Passcode: 289258 Brains are evolved to learn, enabling animals to respond flexibly to an unpredictable world and to draw on experience to guide future behaviors. To learn efficiently, brains need to balance a high degree of flexibility […]