[CTN] CTN seminar: Dr. Rutsuko Ito, Sep 20, 3:30, PAS 2464

[Matthijs van der Meer]

Dear all,

Please join us for next Tuesday's CTN seminar (September 20) by Dr.
Rutsuko Ito (University of Toronto at Scarborough). Title and abstract
follow below.

Rutsuko will be returning to Toronto shortly after her talk, but if you
would like go to lunch with her, or meet earlier in the day, please let
me know!

Time and place are the usual, 3.30pm on Tuesday in PAS 2464. As this is
the first seminar of the new year, I invite you to submit an updated
single slide to highlight recent/ongoing/future work; by default, I will
not recycle last year's, but you can let me know if you'd like to keep it.

The purpose of this is to (1) give our visitors an overview of the range
of research topics in the CTN and Waterloo, and (2) to keep everyone
local updated on who's doing what, to promote awareness and potential
interactions.

Following your feedback, we'll try to have coffee and snacks available
*before* the start of the talk.

Hope to see you all there!

- Matt


Title: Cortico-striatal regulation of hippocampal- and
amygdala-dependent reward learning

Dr. Rutsuko Ito, University of Toronto at Scarborough

Abstract:

Traditionally, topographically organized cortico-striatal loops have
been associated with the control and execution of cognitive and motor
functions in the mammalian brain. A potentially important role that is
not so readily attributed to the cortico-striatal system is that of its
role in regulating learning and memory processes, despite knowledge that
cortico-striatal circuits interface closely with key learning and memory
(limbic) structures, such as the hippocampus (HPC) and basolateral
amygdala. Extensive neuroanatomical and neurophysioloical evidence
suggest that limbic inputs converge and overlap in discrete regions
within the medial prefrontal cortex and the ventral striatum, providing
support to the notion that these discrete loci in the cortico-striatal
system may represent sites at which limbic inputs competitively interact
to gain control over motivational behaviour. My research has thus
focused on identifying the neural and neurochemical basis of the
competitive interaction between hippocampal- and amygdala-mediated
associative information. In this talk, I will present work demonstrating
that the nucleus accumbens shell may be a site at which the integration
of BLA- and HPC-dependent associative information occurs. Furthermore, I
will present evidence that implicates the dopaminergic innervation of
the nucleus accumbens in regulating the balance of limbic control over
motivated behaviour.