Sub-second Striatum Neuromodulatory Signaling on Multiple Spatial Scales During Learning and Action

Dr Mark Howe is Assistant Professor at the Dept of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University. His laboratory aims to understand how neural dynamics in the basal ganglia contribute to motivating, selecting, and learning adaptive actions and how these dynamics become compromised in disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease. They employ a range of in-vivo optical approaches in mouse models to investigate cell type and neurotransmitter specific signals on multiple spatial and temporal scales during behavior. Dr Howe’s talk will describe evidence for spatiotemporal variations in sub-second dopaminergic and cholinergic signals in striatum which may mediate distinct functions in movement control and learning.