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Interneurons and Cortical Function: A Fair and Balanced Workshop
Saturday December 18, 2004Whistler, B.C.
Organizers
Bartlett W. Mel, University of Southern CaliforniaJudith A. Hirsch, University of Southern California
Kenneth D. Miller, Columbia University (recently UCSF)
Introduction
How many genuinely different roles do inhibitory neurons play? An extensive body of knowledge bears on this question, arising from several scientific and engineering disciplines. At an intellectual level, the area is rich in possibilities: inhibitory interneurons are extremely diverse, ranging dramatically in their sizes, dendritic and axonal morphologies, lamina of origin, categories of synaptic input, post-synaptic targets, input and output synaptic dynamics, firing patterns, and receptive field properties. At the same time, inhibition has been proposed to subserve a large and diverse set of functional roles in cortical processing, including map formation, control of neural plasticity during critical periods, elimination of statistical dependencies between neurons, contrast gain control, contrast-invariant tuning, sensitivity to input synchrony, sensory adaptation, logical "veto" operations, direction selectivity, light-dark opponency, figure-ground segregation, bistability effects such as binocular rivalry, visual segmentation, focal visual attention, saccadic suppression, predictive sensory cancellation, synchronization of neuronal populations, generation of cortical rhythms, generation of sustained activity during working memory, and the prevention of runaway excitation underlying epilepsy.Though inhibition in cortex has been much studied, relatively little crosstalk has occurred among investigators working in the diverse fields, particularly between neurobiologically vs. computationally oriented investigators; major opportunities for conceptual progress remain to be exploited. This workshop will bring together investigators using anatomical, physiological, computational, and technical approaches to the study of inhibitory interneurons in cortical information processing. The goal of the workshop, to be achieved through short talks and moderated discussion, will be to distill out common principles, to look for mappings between classes of cortical computations and classes of inhibitory interneurons, and to identify key unanswered questions regarding the multifarious roles of feedforward, lateral, and feedback inhibitory neurons in cortical function.
Speakers
Carlos D. Brody, Cold Spring Harbor LabsEdward M. Callaway, The Salk Institute
Takao K. Hensch, RIKEN Brain Science Institute
Judith A. Hirsch, University of Southern California
Bartlett W. Mel, University of Southern California
Kenneth D. Miller, Columbia University
Odelia Schwartz, The Salk Institute
Harvey A. Swadlow, University of Connecticut
Xiao-Jing Wang, Brandeis University
Program
Saturday morning session: 7:30am—10:30am| 7:30am | Welcome and introduction |
| The Organizers |
|
| 8:00am | Fine-scale specificity of cortical connections creates shared and private networks depending on inhibitory cell types |
| Edward M. Callaway | |
| 8:30am | Properties of fast-spike interneurons in awake sensory neocortex |
| Harvey
A. Swadlow |
|
| 9:00am | COFFEE
BREAK |
| 9:15am | Simple and complex inhibitory cells in cat visual cortex |
| Judith A. Hirsch | |
| 9:45am | The role of strong feedforward inhibition in cortical layer 4 |
| Kenneth
D. Miller |
|
| 10:15am | GENERAL DISCUSSION |
Saturday afternoon session: 4:00pm--7:00pm
| 4:00pm | Arithmetic of excitatory and inhibitory interactions in dendrites: possible role in selective visual attention |
| Bartlett W. Mel | |
| 4:30pm | Theoretical principles for suppression in cortex |
| Odelia
Schwartz |
|
| 5:00pm | COFFEE BREAK |
| 5:15pm | Specific GABA circuits for visual cortical plasticity |
| Takao K. Hensch | |
| 5:45pm | Interneurons and working memory |
| Xiao-Jing Wang | |
| 6:15pm | Dynamical systems in biology: an integrated neural model of two-interval discrimination |
| Carlos
D. Brody |
|
| 6:45pm | GENERAL DISCUSSION |
Review papers
Markram H, Toledo-Rodriguez M, Wang Y, Gupta A, Silberberg G, Wu C. (2004) Interneurons of the neocortical inhibitory system. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 5(10): 793-807.[Abstract] [PDF]
McBain CJ, Fisahn A. (2001) Interneurons unbound. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 2(1): 11-23.
[Abstract] [PDF]