1. Course Title
Visual Neuroscience: From photons to perception

2. Scientific Area
Neuroscience

3. Duration and Dates
5 days - 9 – 13 February 2009

Retinal function and mechanisms of disease

Early visual cortical function

High level cortical processing

Miguel Castelo-Branco
Visual Neuroscience Laboratory
Center of Ophthalmology, IBILI
Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra
3004-548 Coimbra
Portugal
Phone +351 239480261
Fax +351 239480280
mcbranco@ibili.uc.pt

António Francisco Ambrósio
Retinal Dysfunction Group
Center of Ophthalmology, IBILI
Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra
3004-548 Coimbra
Portugal
Phone: +351239480222
Fax: +351239480280
fambrosio@ibili.uc.pt

Serge Picaud
INSERM U-592, Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris6, Laboratoire de Physiopathologie Cellulaire et Moleculaire de la Retine, F-75571 Paris
France.
serge.picaud@st-antoine.inserm.fr

M Francesca Cordeiro
Institute of Ophthalmology
11-43 Bath Street
London EC1V 9EL
Tel: 020 7608 6938
m.cordeiro@ucl.ac.uk
URL: www.ucl.ac.uk/glaucoma-retinal-neurodegen/

Peter de Weerd
Neurocognition Group, Psychology Department, University of Maastricht, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands.
P.deweerd@psychology.unimaas.nl

Beatrice de Gelder,
Room P 511, Postbus 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Tel. (013) 466 2167
E-mail: b.degelder@uvt.nl

Sergio Neuenschwander
Max Planck Institute for Brain Research
Deutschordenstraße 46
D-60528 Frankfurt/Main
Tel.: +49(0)6996769-229/231
Fax: +49(0)6996769-327
neuenschwand@mpih-frankfurt.mpg.de 

Main goals of the course

- To grasp the principles of functional brain organization based on visual pathways as model systems.
- To understand visual function from the retina to the cortical level.
- To understand multimodal sensory integration.

Morning
9:15 – 9:30 Introductory notes
Miguel Castelo-Branco and Francisco Ambrósio
9:30 – 11:00- Lecture 1
The retina: understanding the puzzle.
Francisco Ambrósio

11:30 – 13:00- Lecture 2
Basic principles of organization of the visual system: from the retina to the cortex.
Miguel Castelo-Branco

Afternoon
14:30 – 15:30
Monitoring activity in neural circuits using simultaneous recordings from multiple cells: basic principles and methods
Sergio Neuenschwander

15:30
Challenges in choosing a lab and a PhD project within the scope of a Doctoral Program
Discussion with Faculty members

Morning

9:15 – 10:15 - Lecture 1
Photoreceptor degenerations: From single cell and multielectrode recordings of retinal cells to therapeutic strategies.
Serge Picaud

10:15 – 11:15 - Lecture 2
Diabetic retinopathy: beyond microvascular dysfunction.
Francisco Ambrósio

11:45 – 12:45 - Lecture 3
Does GABA excitatory transmission in the adult retina contribute to retinal pathophysiology?
Serge Picaud

Afternoon
14:30 – 16:30
Chairpersons – Serge Picaud and Francisco Ambrósio
Paper presentations and discussion (2 papers - References from Francisco Ambrósio and Serge Picaud)

Morning
9:15 – 10:30 - Lecture 1
Retinal imaging in vivo with DARC (detection of apoptosing retinal cells).
Francesca Cordeiro

11:00 – 12:30 - Lecture 2
Structure-Function relationships in the visual system.
Miguel Castelo-Branco

Afternoon
14:30 – 15:30 - Lecture 3
Alzheimer disease and retinal neurodegeneration.
Francesca Cordeiro

15:30 – 16:30
Chairpersons – Miguel Castelo-Branco and Francesca Cordeiro
Paper presentation and discussion (2 papers - Reference from Miguel Castelo-Branco and Francesca Cordeiro)

Morning
9:15 – 10:15 - Lecture 1
Neurophysiological approaches to study brain function.
Peter de Weerd

10:30 – 11:30- Lecture 2
Perceptual and attentional mechanisms in the primate brain.
Sergio Neuenschwander

12:00 – 13:00 – Lecture 3
Perceptual filling-in: More than the eye can see.
Peter de Weerd

Afternoon
14:30 – 15:30 – Lecture 4
Face recognition and its deficits.
Beatrice de Gelder

15:30 – 16:30
Chairperson – Sergio Neuenschwander
Paper presentations and discussion (1 paper - Reference from Sergio Neuenschwander)

Morning
9:15 – 12:00
Chairpersons – Beatrice de Gelder and Peter de Weerd
Paper presentations and discussion (2 papers - References from Beatrice de Gelder and Peter de Weerd)

Afternoon
16:00 – Seminar
Multisensory perception and the interaction between auditory and visual processes.
Beatrice de Gelder

Jammoul F*, Wang Q*, Nabbout R, Coriat C, Duboc A, Simonutti M, Dubus E, Craft C M, Ye W, Collins S D, Dulac O, Chiron C, Sahel J A, Picaud S. Taurine deficiency is a cause of vigabatrin-induced retinal phototoxicity. Annals of Neurology (in press)

Gong J, Jellali A, Forster V, Mutterer J, Dubus E, Altrock WD, Sahel JA, Rendon A, Picaud S. The toxicity of the PrP106-126 prion peptide on cultured photoreceptors correlates with the prion protein distribution in the mammalian and human retina. Am J Pathol 2007; 170:1314-24.

Wersinger E, Schwab Y, Sahel JA, Rendon A, Pow DV, Picaud S, Roux MJ. The glutamate transporter EAAT5 works as a presynaptic receptor in mouse rod bipolar cells. J Physiol 2006; 15:577:221-34.

Frasson M, Sahel JA, Fabre M, Simonutti M, Dreyfus H, Picaud S. Retinitis pigmentosa: rod photoreceptor rescue by a calcium-channel blocker in the rd mouse. Nat Med 1999; 5:1183-1187.

Picaud S, Larsson HP, Wellis DP, Lecar H, Werblin F. Cone photoreceptors respond to their own glutamate release in the tiger salamander. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1995; 92:9417-9421.

Guo L, Salt TE, Luong V, Wood N, Cheung W, Maass A, Ferrari G, Russo-Marie F, Sillito AM, Cheetham ME, Moss SE, Fitzke FW, Cordeiro MF. Targeting amyloid-beta in glaucoma treatment. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2007; 104:13444-9.

Cordeiro, MF, Guo L, Luong V, Harding G, Wang W, Jones HE, Moss SE, Sillito AM & Fitzke FW. Real time imaging of single nerve cell apoptosis in retinal neurodegeneration. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2004; 101:13352-13356.
This paper was awarded the Lewis Rudin Award in Glaucoma ($50,000) by the New York Academy of Medicine for the most scholarly international glaucoma publication for the year.

Cordeiro MF, Gay JA and Khaw PT. Human Anti-TGF-ß2 monoclonal antibody: a new anti-scarring agent for glaucoma filtration surgery. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 1999; 40: 2225-34.
This paper was awarded the International Glaucoma Review Prize ($25,000) by the Associated International Glaucoma Societies for the best international glaucoma publication for the year.

Van den Stock J, van de Riet WAC, Righart R, de Gelder B (2008). Neural Correlates of Perceiving Emotional Faces and Bodies in Developmental Prosopagnosia: An Event-Related fMRI-Study. PLoS ONE, 3(9): e3195. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003195.

Righart, R. & de Gelder, B. (2007). Impaired face and body perception in developmental prosopagnosia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 15, 104 (42).

de Gelder, B. (2006). Towards the neurobiology of emotional body language. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7, (3), 242-249. 

de Gelder, B. Meeren, H. K. M., Righart, R., Van den Stock, J. , van de Riet, W. A. C. & and Tamietto, M. (2006) . Beyond the face: Exploring rapid influences of context on face processing. Progress in Brain Research, 155, 37-48. 

De Weerd P. Perceptual filling-in: More than the eye can see. Prog Brain Res 2006;154:227-45. Review.

De Weerd P, Smith E, Greenberg P. Effects of selective attention on perceptual filling-in. J Cogn Neurosci 2006;18:335-47.

Bles M, Schwarzbach J, De Weerd P, Goebel R, Jansma BM. Receptive field size-dependent attention effects in simultaneously presented stimulus displays. Neuroimage 2006; 30:506-11.

De Weerd P, Peralta MR 3rd, Desimone R, Ungerleider LG. Loss of attentional stimulus selection after extrastriate cortical lesions in macaques. Nat Neurosci 1999; 2:753-8. Erratum in: Nat Neurosci 2000 ; 3:409.

Kastner S, Pinsk MA, De Weerd P, Desimone R, Ungerleider LG. Increased activity in human visual cortex during directed attention in the absence of visual stimulation. Neuron 1999; 22:751-61.

Kastner S, De Weerd P, Desimone R, Ungerleider LG. Mechanisms of directed attention in the human extrastriate cortex as revealed by functional MRI. Science 1998; 282:108-11.

Baron J, Pinto L, Dias MO, Lima B, Neuenschwander S. Directional responses of visual wulst neurones to grating and plaid patterns in the awake owl. The European journal of neuroscience (2007) vol. 26 (7) pp. 1950-1968.

Womelsdorf et al. Gamma-band synchronization in visual cortex predicts 
speed of change detection. Nature (2005) vol. 439 (7077) pp. 733-6.

Biederlack J, Castelo-Branco M, Neuenschwander S, Wheeler DW, Singer W, Nikolić D. Brightness induction: rate enhancement and neuronal synchronization as complementary codes. Neuron (2006) vol. 52 (6) pp. 1073-83.

Womelsdorf et al. Modulation of neuronal interactions through neuronal 
synchronization. Science (New York, N.Y.) (2007) vol. 316 (5831) pp. 
1609-12.

Generalized deficits in visual selective attention after V4 and TEO lesions in macaques