Investigating brain function using light

Roscoff (Brittany), France, June 21-25, 2008

Deadline for application: March 22, 2008

• Chairperson: Serge Charpak,

  Laboratoire de Neurophysiologie, UMR CNRS/Inserm S603/8154,
  UFR Biomédicale des Saints-Pères, 45 rue des Saints-Pères, 75006, Paris, France
  Phone: 01 42 86 41 48 – Fax: 01 42 86 41 51
  Email: serge.charpak@univ-paris5.fr

• Vice-Chairperson: Arthur Konnerth
  Institut of Physiology, Biedersteiner Strasse 29,
  80802 München, Germany
  Phone: +49 89 4140 3370 - Fax: 49 89 4140 3377
  Email: Konnerth@lrz.uni-muenchen.de

A new term “the connectome” has recently been launched to describe the ensemble of datasets required to understand the function of the human brain. It comprises the structural and the functional description of all the elements and connections forming the brain. Understanding the “connectome” is indispensable to explain how perception, action or consciousness are implemented in the brain and how its disregulation can account for brain disease. New tools discovered by chemists and molecular biologists have recently emerged which, combined with advances in optics and spike-sorting analysis, enable neuroscientists to selectively monitor or manipulate neural activity with an astonishing spatial and temporal control. The goal of t he Jacques Monod Conference “ Investigating brain function using light ” is to show how these new advances have allowed neuroscientists to investigate the functional part of the "connectome" at the level of single neurons, synapses and small brain ensembles in the living brain.

Topic 1. New probes to manipulate or report neural activity

Photochemists and molecular biologists have synthesized molecules i) that cage neuroactive substances and release them upon UV or two-photon photolysis, ii) that bind and reversibly gate ion permeable channels to selectively modulate neural activity upon phoisomerization, iii) that report neuronal activity, iv) that can be used to develop new super-resolution optical imaging techniques. The first part of the conference will give a precise picture of the potential ot these new techniques to analyze brain function.

Topic 2. Molecular, cellular and network aspects of synaptic function

The second part of the conference will describe the concepts that have recently emerged in the field of synaptic function, plasticity and network properties using these new technical developments in vitro.

Topic 3. Functional analysis of the connectome in vivo

The third part of the conference is dedicated to in vivo analysis of synaptic function. Advances in electrophysiological recording techniques, in optical recordings of single cell and neural network activity, in the generation of transgenic animals that express proteins which optically report neuronal activity has recently allowed to examine the functional "connectome" in the living brain. Several examples will illustrate that the role synaptic properties in encoding information can now be investigated at the level of identified and individual synapses and neurons in vivo.

Invited speakers

(Provisional titles)

BLANCHARD-DESCE Mireille ( Rennes , France )
Multiphotonics and nanosciences: a new route for brain imaging

BRECHT Michael ( Rotterdam , The Netherlands )
Mapping a small mammalian brain

CHARPAK Serge ( Paris , France )
Imaging neurovascular activity in the rat olfactory bulb

CHOQUET Daniel ( Bordeaux , France )
New functions for AMPAR movements in fast synaptic transmission

COSSART Rosa ( Marseille , France )
Watching developing cortical networks at work with multibeam two-photon calcium imaging

DEISSEROTH Karl ( Stanford , USA )
Fast optical neural circuit interrogation: development and neuropsychiatry applications

DENK Winfried ( Heidelberg , Germany )
Watching the brain compute and tracing its wires: new methods to solve old riddles

DIEUDONNÉ Stéphane ( Paris , France )
Probing dendritic function using random-access multiphoton microscopy

EMILIANI Valentina (Paris France)
Holographic photolysis of caged neurotransmitters

FRIEDRICH Rainer ( Heidelberg , Germany )
Pattern processing in the olfactory system: optical insights

HÄUSSER Michael ( London , United Kingdom )
Imaging cerebellar neurons in vivo

HELMCHEN Fritjof ( Zurich , Switzerland )
New 3D scanning modes for in vivo 2-photon imaging

ISACOFF Ehud ( Berkeley , USA )
Optical manipulation of brain and behavior with engineered light-gated glutamate receptors

KASAI Haruo ( Tokyo , Japan )
Two-photon uncaging and photoactivation at single dendritic spines

KNÖPFEL Thomas ( Saitama , Japan )
Targeted optical probing of neuronal circuit dynamics using fluorescent protein sensors

KONNERTH Arthur ( München , Germany )
First images: Activity patterns in the mouse visual cortex

LICHTMAN Jeff ( Cambridge , USA )
Connectomics and the Brainbow Mouse

LUTHI Andreas ( Basel , Switzerland )
To fear or not to fear: dissecting emotional memory circuits in the amygdale

LUTHI Anita ( Basel , Switzerland )
Dual coupling of T-type calcium channels shapes sleep-related oscillations in thalamic dendrites

MARGRIE Troy ( London , United Kingdom )
Motion encoding at a central synapse

MULLE Christophe ( Paris , France )
Multiple ways to vary the efficacy of information transfer at hippocampal mossy fiber synapse

OGDEN David ( Paris , France )
Photolysis: developments and applications of nitroindoline-caged amino acid neurotransmitters

PRÉAT Thomas ( Paris , France )
The dynamics of memory phases in drosophila

RAMAN Indira M. ( Evanston , USA )
Synaptic and spontaneous signaling in cerebellar circuits

SILVER Angus (London, UK)
New optical and computational methods for studying neuronal networks

SVOBODA Karel ( Ashburn , USA )
Using light to dissect neocortical circuits

TANK David (Princeton, USA)
Imaging large-scale neural activity with cellular resolution in awake, mobile mice

TRILLER Antoine ( Paris , France )
A real time molecular dynamic perspective on synaptic stability and plasticity

VINCENT Pierre ( Paris , France )
Subcellular dynamics of cyclic nucleotides in neurons, in brain slice preparations and in vivo

ZADOR Tony (Cold Spring Harbor, USA)
Tagging neuronal subpopulations with Channelrhopodsin-2 in vivo

 

Deadline for application: March 22, 2008

Registration fee (including board and lodging)

• 400€ for PhD students
• 600€ for other participants

Application for registration

The total number of participants is limited to about 115 and all participants are expected to attend for the whole duration of the conference. Selection is made on the basis of the affinity of potential participants with the topics of the conference. Scientists and PhD Students interested in the meeting should send:

• their curriculum vitae
• the list of their main publications for the 3 last years
• the abstract of their presentation

to the Chairperson of the conference before the deadline. After it, the chairman will select the participants. Except in some particular cases approved by the chairperson, it is recommended that all selected participants present their work during the conference, either in poster form or by a brief in- session talk. The organizers choose the form in which the presentations are made. No payment will be sent with application. Information on how and when to pay will be mailed in due time to those selected.