Neuroscientists Talk Shop

Episode 337 - Michele Guigliano, PhD

On September 17, 2026 we spoke with Dr. Michele Guigliano about the differences between neurons in the human cerebral cortex and those of rodents. We discussed the possib

Episode 336 - Melissa Caras, PhD

On September 10, 2026 we talked with Dr. Melissa Caras on the neurophysiology underlying perceptual learning in the auditory cortex. She defined perceptual learning, expl

Episode 335 - Matt Wanat, PhD

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

Episode 334 - Tony Burgos-Robles, PhD

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 t

Episode 333 - Courtney Rouse, PhD

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 da

Episode 332 - Vanesaa Nieto-Estévez and Parul Varma, PhDs

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

Episode 331 - Robert Froemke, PhD

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 incl

Episode 330 - Marcelo Marucho, PhD

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 a

Episode 329 - Daniel Llano, MD, PhD

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 t

Episode 328 - Place Cells and Spatial Imagination

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 cogni

Episode 327 - Se-Woong Park, PhD

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 e

Episode 326 - Peter Fox, MD

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 brai

Episode 325 - Dayu Lin, PhD.

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 inna

Episode 324 - Jonathan Bohmann, PhD

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

Episode 323 - Fidel Santamaria, PhD

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 change

Episode 322 - Matthew Goodwin, PhD

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 p

Episode 321 - Mike Beckstead, PhD

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 Al

Episode 320 - Cristian Lasagna-Reeves, PhD

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

Episode 319 - Maria Diehl, PhD

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,

Episode 318 - Jason O'Connor, PhD

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 h