Colloquium on the Brain and Cognition with David Kleinfeld, PhD, UCSD

Thursday, December 1 at 4:00pm

• IN PERSON: MIT Building 46 (43 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139) Singleton Auditorium, 46-3002 (Third Floor)
• VIRTUAL: https://mit.zoom.us/j/92991006684

Talk Title: The dynamics of brain arterioles and what they tell about neural activity

Abstract: Pial arterioles form an interconnected network that distribute blood across the cortical mantle and source nourishment to brain cells. Far from a passive network, the diameter of these arterioles intrinsically oscillate in the ~ 0.1 Hz vasomotor band. The pial arterioles integrate activity from neighboring arterioles, underlying neurons, and subcortical nuclei to produce space-time patterns of coherent oscillations. A fascinating issue is that the patterns only partially reflect input from the directly underlying neuronal input. I will discuss optical and MR experiments and their analysis that seek to understand these patterns and exploit them to infer underlying neuronal activity.

Bio: David Kleinfeld graduated from Abraham Lincoln High school in Coney Island. He attended college in the Midwest where, after various false starts, he majored in electrical engineering. As a work-study student at Argonne National Laboratories, David realized a passion and an aptitude for experimental physics. Back at university, a seminar by John Hopfield on electron transfer in proteins, and some prodding from David’s professors, convinced David to make his way west and take up an offer to join the laboratory of George Feher in La Jolla. David graduated in 1984 with a thesis on the conversion of light to a pair of separated electrical charges during the first step of photosynthesis. Motivated again by work from John Hopfield, this time on neural networks, David moved back to the east coast and began a decade long stretch at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He then returned to La Jolla in 1996 where he now leads the “Neurophysics” laboratory as a distinguished professor of Physics and Neurobiology at UC San Diego.