Presented By: Department of Psychology
Elliot S. Valenstein Distinguished Lecture | Synapse Specific Structural Plasticity: A Cellular Mechanism of Spaced Learning
Kristen Harris, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Austin
Synapses form trillions of connections in the brain. Long-term potentiation (LTP) is a cellular mechanism vital for learning that modifies the strength and structure of synapses. Three-dimensional electron microscopy reveals distinct pre- to post-synaptic arrangements: strong active zones (AZs) with tightly docked vesicles, weak AZs with loose or non-docked vesicles, and nascent zones (NZs) with a postsynaptic density but no presynaptic vesicles. LTP can be temporarily saturated preventing further increases in synaptic strength. I will discuss how NZ plasticity provides a time dependent and synapse-specific AZ expansion during LTP that ultimately encourages highly effective dendritic spine clusters regulated by the spine apparatus. I will also tell you why we have developed a new synaptopodin knockout rat system to investigate mechanisms of this process. We propose that the saturation of LTP protects recently formed memories and that the regrowth of nascent zones may account for the advantage of spaced over massed learning.
About the speaker: Kristen Harris’s professional career started at Harvard Medical school where she rose to the rank of associate professor. She was the recruited as a full Professor to Boston Univ. where she helped establish their graduate program in experimental and computational neuroscience. She was recruited as a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent scholar to the Medical College of Georgia, and in 2006 joined the Center for Learning and Memory at the University of Texas at Austin. She is renowned for her work on synapse structure and function pioneering three-dimensional reconstruction from serial section electron microscopy. Her lab had developed novel tools sharing them and data (synapseweb.clm.utexas.edu) that are widely used resources. She is the recipient of Sloan Research Fellowship, Javits Merit Award, Brain Research Foundation Fellowship, and continuous funding for her lab, including her current lead as PI on the NSF NeuroNex grant to investigate synaptic weight with 26 international and national coPIs. She is known for innovative teaching and presentations at conferences worldwide. She was recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
The talk will be followed by a reception with light refreshments.
About the speaker: Kristen Harris’s professional career started at Harvard Medical school where she rose to the rank of associate professor. She was the recruited as a full Professor to Boston Univ. where she helped establish their graduate program in experimental and computational neuroscience. She was recruited as a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent scholar to the Medical College of Georgia, and in 2006 joined the Center for Learning and Memory at the University of Texas at Austin. She is renowned for her work on synapse structure and function pioneering three-dimensional reconstruction from serial section electron microscopy. Her lab had developed novel tools sharing them and data (synapseweb.clm.utexas.edu) that are widely used resources. She is the recipient of Sloan Research Fellowship, Javits Merit Award, Brain Research Foundation Fellowship, and continuous funding for her lab, including her current lead as PI on the NSF NeuroNex grant to investigate synaptic weight with 26 international and national coPIs. She is known for innovative teaching and presentations at conferences worldwide. She was recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
The talk will be followed by a reception with light refreshments.
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