Neuroscientists Talk Shop

On September 3, 2026 I met with UTSA colleague Dr. Matt Wanat to discuss the role of dopamine in performance and learning of motivated behavior. Matt explained why it is difficult to make a simple general description of dopamine function.Guest: Matt Wanat, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San AntonioHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San AntonioThanks to James Tepper for original music

On August 27, 2026 we met with our UTSA colleague Dr. Tony Burgos-Robles from UTSA to discuss his work on the contribution of prefrontal cortex to learning responses to threat and safety.Guest: Tony Burgos-Robles, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San AntonioParticipating:Stephanie Villalon, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San AntoniHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San AntonioThanks to James Tepper for original music

On April 30, 2026, we met with Dr. Courtney Rouse from the Southwest Research Institute. We discussed approaches to designing machine learning methods for neuroscience data analysis.Guest:Courtney Rouse, Senior Research Engineer, Southwest Research Institute, San AntonioParticipating:Erick Olivares, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San AntonioHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San AntonioThanks to James Tepper for original music.

On April 23, 2026 I met with Drs. Vanesa Nieto Estévez and Parul Varma to talk about brain organoids made from cells derived from patients with genetic childhood epilepsy. Vanesa and Parul explained how these patient-derived tissue cultures are used to isolate the defects in brain development that underly the brain disorder, and to suggest and test potential treatments.Guests:Vanesa Nieto Estévez and Parul Varma, Assistant Professors of Research, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San AntonioHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT Sa...

On April 16, 2026, we met with Dr. Robert Froemke of New York University to discuss his work on parenting and co-parenting in mice. We covered a wide range of topics including his video approach to discovery in behavioral experiments and the role of oxytocin in parental behavior.Guest: Robert Froemke, Professor, Department of Otolaryngology and Department of Neuroscience at at New York University Langone Health.Participating:Alfonso Apicella, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San AntonioAlice Bertero, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology...

On April 9, 2026 I spoke with Dr. Marcelo Marucho, on the electrical properties of actin filaments and microtubules, ubiquitous components of the cytoskeleton of nearly all cells. He explained how the surface charge of these proteins creates a thin charged layer in the adjacent cytoplasm in which electrical signals may be generated and conducted. In the case of microtubules, the interaction between external and luminal surfaces can produce oscillations. We discussed some of the possible functions of these electrical signals in the brain.Guest:Marcelo Marucho, Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, UTSAHost:<...

On April 2, 2026 we met with Dr. Daniel Llano to discuss the organization of the largest subcortical auditory brain structure, the inferior colliculus. He told us about the three major subnuclei within the inferior colliculus, their synaptic connections with other auditory and somatosensory structures, and the problems encountered as we try to identify the cell types and local connectivity within the nucleus.Guest: Daniel A Llano, Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignParticipating: Marina Silveira, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San AntonioHost: Charles Wilson, Department of...

On March 26, 2026, we held our annual UTSA Neuroscience Symposium entitled "From Place Cells to Cognition", featuring 5 speakers presenting original research on the cognitive functions of hippocampal place cells. They discussed the firing patterns of place cells during exploration of cognitive maps, anticipating future movements, recall of previously visited locations, and imagining the movement of objects in the environment. After the symposium, I met with the speakers to review some of the themes that emerged throughout the day.Speakers:Francesco Savelli, Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAAnnabelle Singer, Associate...

On March 19, 2026 we spoke with Dr. Se-Woong Park about the idea that many of the symptoms of Autism may arise from changes in brain mechanisms that allow us to predict events in the near future from those in the recent past. Topics included internal predictions of postural destabilization produced by our own movements, and prediction of the trajectories of moving objects. We discussed some experimental results testing this idea.Guest:Se-Woong Park, Associate Professor, Department of Kinesiology, UTSAParticipating:Hyoung-gon Lee, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA...

On February 26, 2026 we were joined by Dr. Peter Fox to talk about quantitative brain imaging methods and how they can reveal localized changes in brain structure in brain disorders that traditionally have not been associated with specific neuropathology. Guest:Peter Fox, Director, Brain Imaging Institute and Professor of Radiology, Neurology, and Physiology at UT Health San Antonio.Participating:George Perry, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA.Host:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA.

On February 19, 2026 we were visited by Dr. Dayu Lin to hear about her work on some of the cell groups that make up the hypothalamus and their function in activating innate social behaviors in mice, including parenting and protection of their young. Guest: Dayu Lin, Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Institute for Translational Neuroscience, Langone Medical Center, New York UniversityParticipating: Antony Burgos-Robles, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA.Aayushma Kunwar, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA.Host:...

On February 5, 2026 we met with Dr.Jonathan Bohmann to learn about the structure and function of acetylcholinesterase, the extracellular enzyme that controls the strength and time course of neurotransmitter at cholinergic synapses. He explained how computational models of molecular structure is be used to understand the functional properties of the enzyme and to design drugs that can modify its action.Guest:Jonathan Bohmann, Scientist, Southwest Research Institute, San AntonioParticipating:Jenny Hsieh, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAHost:Charles Wilson, Department...

On January 30, 2026, Fidel Santamaria returned to the podcast (after 18 years) to talk about the thermodynamics of ion channel activation and deactivation, and the changes in neuronal activity that occur with changes in temperature.Guest: Fidel Santamaria, Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology.Host: Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology.Thanks to Jim Tepper for original music

On December 8, 2025 we spoke with Dr. Matthew Goodwin about the use of wearable biosensor technology and machine learning to improve behavioral evaluation of autism, to provide real time alerts for caregivers and more effective interventions before the onset of potentially dangerous behavioral situations. Guest:Matthew Goodwin, Professor and Associate Chair of Research at the Department of Public Health and Health Sciences and the Khouri College of Computer Sciences, at Northeastern University.Participating:Leslie Neeley, Director of the Child and Adolescent Policy Research Institute, and Associate Director of the Brain Health Consortium...

On December 4, 2025 we talked with Dr. Mike Beckstead about his work on changes in dopaminergic neuron excitability in the ventral tegmental area in an animal model of Alzheimer's disease. Mike explained the molecular mechanism of the excitability change and the change in gene expression at its cause.Guest: Mike Beckstead, Professor and Hille Family Foundation Chair in Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Aging & Metabolism Research Program Oklahoma Medical Research FoundationParticipating:Matt Wanat, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and...

On November 20, 2025 we met with Dr. Cristian Lasagna-Reeves to talk about tau protein, its normal function, and what is known about how it aggregates to form the tangles seen in a variety of neurodegenerative brain conditions. We discussed the problem of determining whether the aggregates were causes or effects of the disease process, and whether reducing expression of tau might be an effective treatment.Guest:Cristian Lasagna-Reeves, Associate Professor, Dept. of Neurology, Baylor College of MedicineParticipating:George Perry, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio...

On November 13, 2025, we met with Dr. Maria Diehl, to learn about her experiments on avoidance learning in rats. The conversation focused on learning in a social context, in which one animal benefits from watching another learn the task.We had to relocate this week, because of a noisy construction project in the hallway outside our usual room. Guest:Maria Diehl, Associate Professor in Psychological Science, Kansas State University.Participating:Tony Burgos-Robles, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAItamar Lerner, Department of Psychology...

On November 6, 2025, I spoke with Dr. Jason O'Connor about the behavioral and psychological effects of inflammation, and their similarity to depression. Jason explained how inflammation can produce those symptoms by increasing levels of kynurenine and metabolites in the brain. We discussed the possibility that depression may sometimes result from a rise in those metabolites in the absence of inflammation.Guest:Jason O'Connor, Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the UT San Antonio Long School of Medicine and the Audie Murphy VA Hospital.Host:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology...

On October 23, 2025 we met with Dr. Peter Crino about how mutations occurring during cell division in the developing cerebral cortex can lead to localized developmental malformations of cortical structure and neurological disorders including focal epilepsy.Guest:Peter Crino, Richard and Kathryn Taylor Professor, Chair, Department of Neurology, University of Maryland School of Medicine.Participating:Jenny Hsieh, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio.Host:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio.

On October 16, 2025 we spoke with Sara Swinford-Jackson about effects of parental drug self-administration on motivated drug taking in offspring in rodents. Sarah discussed the approach taken to remove genetic and environmental contributions to isolate the epigenetic contribution, and to identify the biological mechanism.GuestSarah Swinford-Jackson, Assistant professor of Behavioral and Cellular Neuroscience in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University.Participating:Matt Wanat, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio.Alexey Soshnev, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San...