Episode 318 - Jason O'Connor, 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, 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, UTSAHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAThanks to Jim Tepper for original music

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, UT San AntonioThanks to James Tepper for original music

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 Antonio.Ashley Miller, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio.Host:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio.Thanks to James Tepper for original music

On October 9, 2025 we met with Maria Geffen to discuss the how three kinds of inhibitory neurons in the auditory cortex each contributes to individual features of auditory experience.Guest:Maria Geffen, Professor of Otorhinolaryngology, Neuroscience, and Neurology, University of PennsylvaniaParticipating:Alfonso Apicella, Department of Neuroscience, Regenerative and Developmental Biology, UTSAAlice Bertero, Department of Neuroscience, Regenerative and Developmental Biology, UTSAJon-Paul Moler, Department of Neuroscience, Regenerative and Developmental Biology, UTSAHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Regenerative and Developmental Biology, UTSAThanks to James Tepper for original music

On October 2, 2025 Dan Lodge returned to the podcast to talk about the physiological changes in brain circuits associated with schizophrenia. We reviewed the status of the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia and the brain circuits responsible for its negative, positive, and cognitive symptoms.Guest: Dan Lodge, Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacology, Long School of Medicine, UT San AntonioParticipating:Matt Wanat, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San AntonioHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San AntonioThanks to Jim Tepper for original music

On September 25, 2025 we met with Daniel Dombeck to talk about cognitive maps and place coding by neurons in the hippocampus. Conversation topics included the spatial organization of cells with a map, mappings based on visual versus olfactory cues, changes in spatial scale with the size of the environment, and remapping of the place cells with changes in context. Guest:Daniel Dombeck, Professor, Department of Neurobiology, Northwestern UniversityParticipating:Francesco Savelli, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAStephen Jones, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAThanks to James Tepper for original music

On September 18, 2025, and we got to talk with Ricardo Mozzachiodi about what was learned and what we continue to learn about the cellular and molecular basis of memory by studying simple behaviors in a mollusk, Aplysia california, the sea hare. Ricardo filled us in on the original rationale for studying cell biology of learning in this animal, and current findings on the role of neuromodulators in learning.Guest:Ricardo Mozzachiodi, Professor, Department of Life Sciences, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi. Participating:Alfonso Apicella, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAThanks to James Tepper for original music

On September 4, 2025 we talked with Michael Roberts about exploring complex brainstem circuitry of the auditory system, identifying its characteristic cell types, connections, synaptic features and cellular dynamics. We discussed the challenges encountered in studying brain circuits in general, and the particular difficulties and opportunities that attend this effort in the inferior colliculus.Guest: Michael Roberts, Associate Professor, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan. Participating:Marina Silveira, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAThanks to James Tepper for original music

On May 8, 2025 we met with Kevin Bieniek to talk about the nature of brain injury seen in chronic traumatic encephalopathy in athletes and others who experience repeated concussion. Kevin explained the commonalities and unique features of those injuries compared to neurodegenerative diseases.Guest:Kevin Bieniek, Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Director of the Brain Bank at the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio.Participating:Melanie Carless, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAHost:Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSAThanks to James Tepper for original music