It was great honor to invite Prof. Xiaohui Zhang from Beijing Normal University to give a academic report on 1st Nov. Prof. Zhang’s research achievements had published in Nat Neurosci、Nat Commun、PNAS、J Neurosci、Cell Rep and so on.
Report revolved round the title “Optogenetic dissection of circuitry mechanisms for associative learning and neural activity oscillation”, hosted by Prof. Lixia Gao. Prof. Zhang introduced that: Diverse types of neuron are interconnected via local or long-range synapses to form distinct neural circuits, which are basic modules for different brain functions and behaviors. Dissecting the circuit connectivity and function is one of fundamental studies to understand how the brain works. In the talk, I would present our recent finding on circuitry bases for associative learning and cortical oscillations, by using electrophysiology and optogenetic approaches. The first part shows that in the entorhinal cortex (EC)→hippocampus CA1 direct circuit, lateral EC excitatory projection neurons selectively form direct synapses onto a specific population of morphologically complex, calbindin-expressing pyramidal cells in the dorsal CA1, forming a distinct circuit for olfactory associative learning. The second part will introduce some of our latest results of differential and cooperative roles of two major inhibitory interneurons, somatostatin (SOM)- and parvalbumin (PV)-expressing cells, in orchestrating diverse oscillatory activities in the visual cortical circuit.
ZIINT PIs highly appreciated Prof. Zhang’s research achievements and brilliant contribution, looked forward to strengthening communication and corporation furthermore.
