BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Watching brain circuitry in action: two-photon imaging of neural a
 ctivity - Simon R. Schultz\, Department of Bioengineering\, Imperial Colle
 ge London
DTSTART:20061117T130000Z
DTEND:20061117T140000Z
UID:TALK5191@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Cordula Becker
DESCRIPTION:Reverse-engineering the function of cortical circuitry using t
 raditional "blind" extracellular recording is a difficult (if not impossib
 le) task\, due to the random sampling of neurons it involves. New optical 
 recording approaches allow ways around this: calcium imaging allows the ac
 tivity of virtually all the neurons in an area of tissue to be imaged at s
 ingle cell resolution\, and two-photon targeted recording allows visualise
 d electrophysiology to be performed in vivo. The cerebellum is an ideal st
 ructure to which to apply such an approach\, as its cortical circuit lies 
 almost entirely within 300 microns of the surface\, and as we are able to 
 image calcium signals in vivo with dendritic resolution. I will present re
 cent work in which I use these techniques to study the synchronization of 
 complex spikes among populations of cerebellar Purkinje cells.
LOCATION:Seminar Room (ground floor)\, Craik-Marshall Building
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR