Dr Dietmar Plenz, from the National Institute of Mental Health, recently spoke at SWC. He described his work that shows how even a single artificial spike in a cortical neuron can trigger widespread and meaningful responses across the surrounding network in awake mice. Despite the sparse and weak connections, these signals spread efficiently, even within the noisy and highly active environment of the brain. The key to this may be that the cortex operates in a critical state - a dynamic balance between order and chaos - allowing small events to have large effects.

In a recent SWC Seminar, Dr Weijian Zong, Group Leader at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, presented his work developing new generations of miniature two-photon (2P) microscopes. These miniscopes offer resolution, field of view, speed, and z-scanning capability similar to that of 2P benchtop microscopes. In this interview, Dr Zong discusses the impact of these advances on neuroscience research.

Why do birds sing - and how do they learn to do it? For decades, researchers have turned to songbirds to explore the mysteries of vocal learning, a rare and complex behaviour shared with humans. In this interview, SWC Seminar speaker Richard Mooney, Professor at the Duke University School of Medicine, reflects on a path that led him from classical guitar to cutting-edge auditory research, and explores what birdsong can teach us about learning, communication, and the intricate relationship between sound and behaviour.