On December 8, 2025 we spoke with Dr. Matthew Goodwin about the use of wearable biosensor technology and machine learning to improve behavioral evaluation of autism, to provide real time alerts for caregivers and more effective interventions before the onset of potentially dangerous behavioral situations.

Guest:

Matthew Goodwin, Professor and Associate Chair of Research at the Department of Public Health and Health Sciences and the Khouri College of Computer Sciences, at Northeastern University.

Participating:

Leslie Neeley, Director of the Child and Adolescent Policy Research Institute, and Associate Director of the Brain Health Consortium, UTSA

Host:

Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA

Thanks to James Tepper for original music

On December 4, 2025 we talked with Dr. Mike Beckstead about his work on changes in dopaminergic neuron excitability in the ventral tegmental area in an animal model of Alzheimer's disease. Mike explained the molecular mechanism of the excitability change and the change in gene expression at its cause.

Guest:

Mike Beckstead, Professor and Hille Family Foundation Chair in Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Aging & Metabolism Research Program Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation

Participating:

Matt Wanat, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA

Host:

Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA

Thanks to James Tepper for original music

On November 20, 2025 we met with Dr. Cristian Lasagna-Reeves to talk about tau protein, its normal function, and what is known about how it aggregates to form the tangles seen in a variety of neurodegenerative brain conditions. We discussed the problem of determining whether the aggregates were causes or effects of the disease process, and whether reducing expression of tau might be an effective treatment.

Guest:

Cristian Lasagna-Reeves, Associate Professor, Dept. of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine

Participating:

George Perry, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio

Hyoung-gon Lee, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio

Host:

Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio

Thanks to Jim Tepper for original music

On November 13, 2025, we met with Dr. Maria Diehl, to learn about her experiments on avoidance learning in rats. The conversation focused on learning in a social context, in which one animal benefits from watching another learn the task.

We had to relocate this week, because of a noisy construction project in the hallway outside our usual room.

Guest:

Maria Diehl, Associate Professor in Psychological Science, Kansas State University.

Participating:

Tony Burgos-Robles, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA

Itamar Lerner, Department of Psychology, UTSA

Host:

Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA

Thanks to Jim Tepper for original music

On November 6, 2025, I spoke with Dr. Jason O'Connor about the behavioral and psychological effects of inflammation, and their similarity to depression. Jason explained how inflammation can produce those symptoms by increasing levels of kynurenine and metabolites in the brain. We discussed the possibility that depression may sometimes result from a rise in those metabolites in the absence of inflammation.

Guest:

Jason O'Connor, Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the UT San Antonio Long School of Medicine and the Audie Murphy VA Hospital.

Host:

Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio

Thanks to James Tepper for original music

On October 23, 2025 we met with Dr. Peter Crino about how mutations occurring during cell division in the developing cerebral cortex can lead to localized developmental malformations of cortical structure and neurological disorders including focal epilepsy.

Guest:

Peter Crino, Richard and Kathryn Taylor Professor, Chair, Department of Neurology, University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Participating:

Jenny Hsieh, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio.

Host:

Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio.

On October 16, 2025 we spoke with Sara Swinford-Jackson about effects of parental drug self-administration on motivated drug taking in offspring in rodents. Sarah discussed the approach taken to remove genetic and environmental contributions to isolate the epigenetic contribution, and to identify the biological mechanism.

Guest

Sarah Swinford-Jackson, Assistant professor of Behavioral and Cellular Neuroscience in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University.

Participating:

Matt Wanat, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio.

Alexey Soshnev, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio.

Ashley Miller, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio.

Host:

Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio.

Thanks to James Tepper for original music

On October 9, 2025 we met with Maria Geffen to discuss the how three kinds of inhibitory neurons in the auditory cortex each contributes to individual features of auditory experience.

Guest:

Maria Geffen, Professor of Otorhinolaryngology, Neuroscience, and Neurology, University of Pennsylvania

Participating:

Alfonso Apicella, Department of Neuroscience, Regenerative and Developmental Biology, UTSA

Alice Bertero, Department of Neuroscience, Regenerative and Developmental Biology, UTSA

Jon-Paul Moler, Department of Neuroscience, Regenerative and Developmental Biology, UTSA

Host:

Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Regenerative and Developmental Biology, UTSA

Thanks to James Tepper for original music