Manchester Neuroscience Seminar Series - Dr Jose Moya Diaz from the University of Sussex
| Dates: | 7 May 2025 |
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| Times: | 14:00 - 15:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health |
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| Who is it for: | University staff |
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| Speaker: | Jose Moya Diaz |
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Please join the Division of Neuroscience, Wednesday 7 May 2025, for the Manchester Neuroscience Seminar Series, the speaker will be Dr Jose Moya Diaz from the University of Sussex.
Title: "Neuromodulatory changes in the efficiency of information transmission at visual synapses"
Abstract: Neuromodulators adjust sensory processing and synapses are key control sites for such plasticity. Less clear is how neuromodulation alters the amount of information that synapses transmit through a circuit. Here we investigated this question by imaging the release of individual glutamatergic vesicles as they transmit the visual signal from bipolar cells (BCs) to neurons of the inner retina of larval zebrafish. This approach reveals that the visual message transmitted from BCs does not use a simple binary code but is instead composed of a number of symbols, composed of one, two, three or more vesicles released as one event. This strategy of coding by amplitude as well as rate is under diurnal control, contributing to a four-fold variation in the Shannon information transmitted at individual active zones. Dopamine and Substance P contributes to changes in information transfer by adjusting at least four synaptic properties; the number of vesicles released by a stimulus, spontaneous synaptic noise, the variability of stimulus-driven responses and the balance between univesicular and multivesicular release. By increasing the probability of multivesicular events with larger information content, dopamine also increases the efficiency of transmission quantified as bits per vesicle. These results provide a quantitative understanding of the different mechanisms by which neuromodulators alter the flow of sensory information.
This seminar will be hosted by Dr Rob Lucas
When: Wednesday, 7 May 2025 | 14:00 – 15:00
Where: Michael Smith Lecture Theatre
All are welcome
Speaker
Jose Moya Diaz
Role: Professor
Organisation: University of Sussex
Travel and Contact Information
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Michael Smith Lecture Theatre
Michael Smith Building
Manchester
