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, explained how it can be measured in animals, and described the changes in neuronal activity auditory cortex neurons associated with learning.Guest:Melissa Caras, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, University of MarylandParticipating:Alice Bertero, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San AntonioAlfonso Apicella, 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 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 San Antonio Thanks to James Tepper for original music

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, UT San AntonioJon Moler, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San AntonioHost: Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio

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:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA

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 Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San AntonioThanks to James Tepper for original music

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 Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory UniversityAlbert Lee, Associate Professor, Department of Neurology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard UniversityJill Leutgeb, Professor, Department of Neurobiology, University of California San DiegoKamran Diba, Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, University of MichiganHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAThanks to James Tepper for original music

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, UTSAHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAThanks to James Tepper for original music