IBACS Meet & Speak 2023 Keynote Speaker
We're excited to introduce the Keynote Speaker for the 2023 IBACS Meet & Speak event on Friday, April 28th in Konover Auditorium.
Dr. Diego Bohorquez, Duke University
Brief Bio: I am a neuroscientist recognized for the discovery of a neural circuit that serves as the basis of gut brain sensory transduction. At Duke University, I lead a research team built with the vision to treat the brain from the gut. Our mission is to dissect gut-brain circuits underlying behaviors to improve health. Beyond the laboratory, I founded Gastronauts Foundation Inc. - a global venue to disseminate knowledge on gut brain matters.
Talk Title: The Wisdom of the Gut
Abstract: The vision of my laboratory is to treat the brain from the gut. Over the last decade we established the neural basis for how gut feelings about nutrients guide appetitive choices. Our initial focus was sugar. Animals distinguish sugars from non-nutritive sweeteners even in the absence of sweet taste. The hidden sugar sense appeared to reside in the gut, but the cells and neural circuits were unknown. In 2018, our laboratory discovered a neural circuit linking the gut to the brainstem in one synapse. The neural circuit is formed between neuropod cells in the gut and the vagus nerve. This neural circuit is essential to convey sensory cues from sugars. In 2020, we discovered that animals rely on neuropod cells to distinguish sugars from non-caloric sweeteners. For this discovery, we collaborated with Prof. Polina Anikeeva to develop a new generation of tools to use optogenetics and other neural tools to interrogate the contribution of visceral sensors to behavior. Much like the brain relies on retinal cone cells to see color, gut neuropod cells help the brain choose sugar over non-caloric sweeteners.
Two relevant papers:
• Buchanan KL, Rupprecht LE, Kaelberer MM et al., and DV Bohórquez*. 2022. The preference for sugar over sweetener depends on a gut sensor cell. Nature Neurosci. doi.org/10.1038/s41593-021-00982-7.
• Kaelberer MM et al., and DV Bohórquez. 2018. A gut-brain neural circuit for nutrient sensory transduction. Science. 361(6408). pii: eaat5236.
LangFest 2023
We are excited to announce that Language Fest is making an in-person return for 2023, and invite you to join us on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 26th (event times TBD).
Language Fest is a University-wide research conference that welcomes the full cross-disciplinary community of language researchers at UConn for a day of sharing results, ideas, methodologies, and fostering future interdisciplinary collaborations. Researchers from all disciplines of the language sciences and at all career stages are welcome and encouraged to submit their work.
Further details about submissions and registration will be provided in early-March 2023.
For any questions about Language Fest, please e-mail: langfest@uconn.edu and visit our website https://languagefest.uconn.
We look forward to your attendance and participation!
COGS Colloquium: Dr. Naselaris on 3/8
The Cognitive Science Program invites you to a talk on 3/8!
Speaker: Dr. Thomas Naselaris, an Associate Professor from Department of Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota.
Time & Location: 4PM, Wednesday March 8th, 2023, in McHugh Room 205. Light refreshments will be provided.
Talk Title: “Why Do We Have Mental Images?”
Abstract: Everyone who experiences mental imagery is the world expert on the contents of their own mental images. We argue that this privileged perspective on one’s own mental images provides very limited understanding about the function of mental imagery, which can only be understood by proposing and testing hypotheses about the computational work that mental images do. We propose that mental imagery functions as a useful form of inference that is conditioned on visual beliefs. We implement this form of inference in a simple generative model of natural scenes, and show that it makes testable predictions about differences in tuning to seen and imagined features. We confirm these predictions with a large-scale fMRI experiment in which human brain activity was sampled while subjects generated hundreds of mental images. We speculate that ongoing mental imagery may impact the structure of noise correlations in the visual system, and present a preliminary analysis of the Natural Scenes Dataset that appears to be consistent with these speculations.
Bio:Thomas is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota, and a member of the Medical Discovery Team on Optical Imaging and Brain Science at the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research. He is co-founder and currently Executive Chair of the Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience.
COGS & SLAC Talk on 12/16: Jonathan Peelle
The Cognitive Science and SLAC programs invite you to a talk on 12/16!
Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Peelle, an Associate Professor from the Center for Cognitive and Brain Health at Northeastern University.
Time & Location: 4PM, Friday December 16th, 2022, in the Dodd Center Konover Auditorium. Light refreshments will be provided. Please RSVP so we can order accordingly.
Talk Title: “Cognitive consequences of acoustic challenge during spoken communication”
Abstract: Everyday communication is full of acoustic challenges, including background noise, competing talkers, or assistive devices. How do listeners understand speech in the midst of this noise? Evidence from multiple sources is consistent with a shared resource framework of speech comprehension in which domain-general cognitive processes supported by discrete regions of frontal cortex are required for successfully understanding speech. These increased cognitive demands can be captured using behavior, pupillometry, and functional brain imaging. Although frequently studied in the context of hearing loss, these principles have broader implications for our understanding of how auditory and cognitive factors interact during spoken language comprehension.
Bio: Jonathan is a cognitive neuroscientist who studies the neuroscience of human communication, aging, and hearing impairment at the Center for Cognitive and Brain Health at Northeastern University. He also has two podcasts: “The Brain Made Plain” where he interviews cognitive neuroscientists about their work, and “The Juice and the Squeeze” in which he and a co-host talk about different aspects of being in academia.
Meetings: If you are interested in meeting with Dr. Peelle during the day on Friday or joining the dinner, please email: crystal.mills@uconn.edu.
Speaker: Dr. Hady Ba, Associate-Professor of Philosophy at Cheikh Anta Diop University, Visiting Fullbright Scholar
Time & Location: 4pm, Friday, April 22, 2022 in Oak 117. Light refreshments will be provided.
Talk Title: Ape Linguistics and the Chomsky/Norvig debate
Abstract: According to Chomsky, statistical models of language, even though pragmatically successful can’t teach us anything about the nature of language which is rule based. Norvig disagree. According to him science goes from accumulation of data to explanation and back. In this talk, I’ll first show that despite advances in the statistical treatment of language, what happens is that the most successful algorithms for translation, completion and dialogue seem to mimic our brains treatment of language but have some limitations that we don’t know yet how to get rid of. Does this mean that we need better linguistic theories to get to the next step? To respond to this question, I will use data from animal linguistic cognition. I’ll argue that our experiments in teaching language to monkeys and the use by some researchers of tools from linguistics to analyze natural communicative production of apes show that there is a very specific, probably innate, component in humans’ ability to not only produce but also understand language. I will argue that contrary to what Chomsky think, this component goes beyond universal grammar and is probably due to the very peculiar nature of human sociability.
Meeting opportunities: Dr. Ba will be available during the day of his talk for individual or small-group meetings on Zoom or in-person. Please contact Crystal at crystal.mills@uconn.edu if you are interested.
