Rebekah Evans, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience

Georgetown University

Midbrain Circuitry Connecting Excercise and Motor Learning

Specific neurons in the midbrain are highly vulnerable to neurodegeneration in disorders such as Parkinson's Disease. These include the well-known dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra and the less-well-understood cholinergic neurons of the pedunculopontine nucleus. Here, I will show two-photon imaging and electrophysiology data comparing dendritic calcium signaling in these two vulnerable types of neurons and will describe changes that happen in these circuits after exercise and how they may be related to motor skill learning. 

Host Information: Jonathan Kasdin ([email protected]) - Gadagkar Lab

The Columbia Neuroscience Seminar series is a collaborative effort of Columbia's Zuckerman Institute, the Department of Neuroscience, the Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior and the Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative, and with support from the Kavli Institute for Brain Science.