Brainy Days in Jerusalem: an Interdisciplinary Celebration

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is mysterious because it involves deficits in social cognition and language, both of which are central to what makes us human. ASD is known to have a strong genetic basis, but little is known about the molecular and neuronal mechanisms. Recent studies identified mutations in hundreds of genes that may contribute to the risk of ASD. We have found that chromatin regulators, which are active during brain development, are central to ASD risk. However it still unclear how mutations in this type of genes lead to ASD? Remarkably, several studies identified overlapping set of genes in different neurodevelopmental disorders. This raises the question whether the molecular and neuronal mechanisms underlying ASD are shared with other disorders. To address these questions, we studied genes that harbor de novo mutations in different neurodevelopmental disorders. We found that across disorders, mutations tend to affect similar types of biological processes, and to be in genes expressed in cortical layers during development. The same genes and processes that are implicated in the disorders are negatively depleted from rare mutations in normally developing individuals, probably due to purifying selection. To study the specific mechanisms that are dysregulated we are investigating different cellular and mouse models. In one of our mouse models, we found changes in the level of neurogenesis, brain size and social and cognitive behavior. Still the factors that determine the specific human phenotypes and disorders remains poorly understood. 9:50-10:40 Leslie Vosshall The Rockefeller University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, USA The genetic basis of innate behaviors ABSTRACT: My group is interested in the molecular neurobiology of mosquito host-seeking behavior. Female mosquitoes require a blood meal to complete egg development. In carrying out this innate behavior, mosquitoes spread dangerous infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue My group is interested in the molecular neurobiology of mosquito host-seeking behavior. Female mosquitoes require a blood meal to complete egg development. In carrying out this innate behavior, mosquitoes spread dangerous infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and yellow fever. Humans attract mosquitoes via multiple sensory cues including emitted body odor, heat, and carbon dioxide in the breath. The mosquito perceives differences in these cues, both between and within species, to determine which animal or human to target for blood-feeding. We have developed CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing in the yellow fever and dengue vector mosquito, Aedes aegypti, with the goal of understand how sensory cues are integrated by the female mosquito to lead to host-seeking behavior. Some of the questions we are currently addressing are: Why are some people more attractive to mosquitoes than others? How do insect repellents work? How are multiple sensory cues integrated in the mosquito brain to elicit innate behaviors? How do female mosquitoes select a suitable body of water to lay their eggs? Recent advances from my group in analyzing the molecular biology of host-seeking behavior will be discussed. 11:10-12:00 Omri Barak Faculty of Medicine, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel Neural dynamics of perceptual detection under temporal uncertainty ABSTRACT: Under uncertainty, the brain uses previous knowledge to transform sensory inputs into the percepts on which decisions are based. When the uncertainty lies in the timing of sensory evidence, however, the mechanism underlying the use of previously acquired temporal information remains unknown. We study this issue in monkeys performing a detection task with variable stimulation times. We use the neural correlates of false alarms to infer the subject’s response criterion and find that it modulates over the course of a trial. Analysis of premotor cortex activity shows that this modulation is represented by the dynamics of population responses. A trained recurrent network model reproduces the experimental findings, and demonstrates a novel neural mechanism to benefit from temporal expectations in perceptual detection. Previous knowledge about the probability of stimulation over time can be intrinsically encoded in the neural population dynamics, allowing a flexible control of the response criterion over time. Under uncertainty, the brain uses previous knowledge to transform sensory inputs into the percepts on which decisions are based. When the uncertainty lies in the timing of sensory evidence, however, the mechanism underlying the use of previously acquired temporal information remains unknown. We study this issue in monkeys performing a detection task with variable stimulation times. We use the neural correlates of false alarms to infer the subject’s response criterion and find that it modulates over the course of a trial. Analysis of premotor cortex activity shows that this modulation is represented by the dynamics of population responses. A trained recurrent network model reproduces the experimental findings, and demonstrates a novel neural mechanism to benefit from temporal expectations in perceptual detection. Previous knowledge about the probability of stimulation over time can be intrinsically encoded in the neural population dynamics, allowing a flexible control of the response criterion over time. 12:00-12:50 Shaul Druckmann – Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Virginia, USA Dynamic attractors and non-coding spaces in a delayed working memory task