BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//UC Irvine Department of Neurobiology and Behavior - ECPv6.17.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:UC Irvine Department of Neurobiology and Behavior X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://neurobiology.uci.edu X-WR-CALDESC:Events for UC Irvine Department of Neurobiology and Behavior REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20250309T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20251102T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20260308T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20261101T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20270314T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20271107T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20280312T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20281105T090000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260914T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260914T170000 DTSTAMP:20260630T203852Z CREATED:20260624T225818Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260630T203852Z UID:8836-1789372800-1789405200@neurobiology.uci.edu SUMMARY:NBB Department Retreat 2026 DESCRIPTION:Please register below for the annual NBB Department Retreat — a full day of research talks\, career panels\, and community building. This year’s program features faculty presentations\, an AI discussion\, and a “Paths in Neuroscience” panel spanning early to emeritus career stages. Lunch and light refreshments provided throughout the day. Also\, don’t miss out on our new swag giveaway! \n\n\n\n📅 Date: Monday\, September 14th\, 2026🕒 Time: 8:00am – 5:00pm📍 Location: Calit2 – UC Irvine \n\n\n\nThis event is an in-person only event. \n\n\n\n\nRegister Now\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAgenda\n\n\n\n8:00 amCheck-in (Light refreshments provided)8:40 amWelcome — Kim Green\, PhD and Huixin Xu\, PhD8:50 amState of the Department — Chair Marcelo Wood\, PhD9:10 amState of the School — Dean Frank LaFerla\, PhD9:40 amHuixin Xu\, PhD10:15 amMorning Break (Light refreshments provided)10:40 amAI — Dominic Slauson11:00 amAI — Vivek Swarup\, PhD11:20 amAI — Craig Stark\, PhD11:40 amAI — Audrey Lew\, PhD12:00 pmAI Discussion12:30 pmLunch (Lunch buffet provided)1:40 pmSean Piantadosi\, PhD2:15 pmPaths in Neuroscience: Perspectives Across Career StagesEarly Career: Huixin Xu\, PhD and Sean Piantadosi\, PhDMid Career: Tom Lane\, PhDEmeritus: Andrea Tenner\, PhDIndustry: Keith Luhrs\, PhD3:20 pmAfternoon Break (Light refreshments provided)3:45 pmRaju Metherate\, PhD4:10 pmNeuro Trivia Competition4:45 pmClosing Remarks\n\n\n\n\nRegister to attend the NBB Department Retreat 2026\n\n\n\n\n \n Name(Required)\n \n \n \n First\n \n \n \n \n Last\n \n \n Email(Required)\n \n UCI Affiliation(Required)\n \n \n Faculty\n \n \n \n Staff\n \n \n \n Graduate Student\n \n \n \n Undergraduate Student\n \n \n \n Postdoctoral Fellow\n \n \n \n Lab Staff\n \n \n \n Other\n If other\, please specify.(Required)Do you have any dietary restrictions?(Required)\n \n \n Yes\n \n \n \n No\n Please enter any dietary restrictions below.(Required)Nut allergy\, peanut\, etc. or vegan\, vegetarian\, etc.\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIf you have questions about this event\, please email tinatt5@uci.edu. URL:https://neurobiology.uci.edu/event/nbb-department-retreat-2026/ LOCATION:Calit2 – UCI\, 4100 E Peltason Dr\, Irvine\, California\, 92617\, United States END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261020T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261020T120000 DTSTAMP:20260715T170728Z CREATED:20260715T170427Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260715T170728Z UID:8899-1792494000-1792497600@neurobiology.uci.edu SUMMARY:Loren Frank\, PhD – James L. McGaugh Distinguished Seminar Series DESCRIPTION:McGaugh Distinguished Seminar Series\n\n\n\nTuesday\, October 20th\, 2026 at 11:00am\n\n\n\nThe seminar will be In-Person.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLoren Frank\, PhD\n\n\n\nInvestigator\, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Professor\, Departments of Physiology and Psychiatry\, UCSF\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThinking and Doing \n\n\n\nAbstract: \n\n\n\nThe brain has the remarkable ability to self-generate meaningful and distributed activity patterns (“thoughts”). Thoughts make it possible to simulate possible futures and alternative pasts\, and to use those simulations to inform choices. Here we focus on two key features of thoughts. First\, thoughts can be controlled: subjects can typically decide what to think about and then generate related mental representations. Second\, thoughts are behaviorally accessible: subjects can act based on their representational content. The neural activity patterns that underlie thoughts are poorly understood\, but we do know that there are specific activity patterns in the brain that are consistent with mental simulations. These include non-local spatial representations in the hippocampus that are consistent with possible futures and alternative pasts. Whether these representations are controllable and accessible remains unclear. We therefore developed two tasks that where we delivered real-time feedback contingent on the decoded content of non-local hippocampal representations. These tasks allowed us to determine 1) whether animals can control the content of non-local hippocampal representations and 2) whether they can access that content to guide an upcoming choice. If you are interested in knowing what we found\, please come to the talk. \n\n\n\nBio: \n\n\n\nLoren Frank is Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and a Professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of California\, San Francisco (UCSF). He received his B.A. in Psychology and Cognitive studies from Carleton College\, his Ph.D. in Systems Neuroscience and Computation from M.I.T. and did post-doctoral research at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University. His laboratory uses a combination of techniques to study the neural bases of learning\, memory and decision-making. In particular\, his work focuses on the hippocampus and related structures\, brain areas critical for forming and retrieving memories for the events of daily life. He also works in close collaboration with colleagues from multiple institutions to develop new technologies to understand how the brain works and how to fix it when it is not working properly. These technologies include flexible polymer electrodes that make it possible to record from large numbers of neurons for months at a time and real-time feedback systems that enable manipulations of specific patterns of brain activity. Dr. Frank has received numerous awards for his scientific discoveries and his mentoring\, including fellowships from the Sloan\, McKnight and Merck Foundations as well as the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award\, the University of Indiana Gill Young Investigator Award\, the UCSF Faculty Mentoring Award\, and the College Mentors for Kids Inspire Award. URL:https://neurobiology.uci.edu/event/loren-frank-phd-james-l-mcgaugh-distinguished-seminar-series/ LOCATION:Herklotz Conference Room\, 300 Qureshey Research Lab\, Irvine\, California\, 92697-3800\, United States CATEGORIES:James L. McGaugh Distinguished Seminar END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261103T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261103T120000 DTSTAMP:20260706T184646Z CREATED:20260706T184645Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260706T184646Z UID:8879-1793703600-1793707200@neurobiology.uci.edu SUMMARY:Eitan Schechtman\, PhD – Tenure Talk Seminar Series DESCRIPTION:Tenure Talk Seminar Series\n\n\n\nTuesday\, November 3rd\, 2026 at 11:00am\n\n\n\nThe seminar will be In-Person.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEitan Schechtman\, PhD\n\n\n\nAssistant Professor\, Neurobiology & Behavior\, UC Irvine\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSleep and cognition: mechanisms\, interventions\, and real-life implications \n\n\n\nAbstract: \n\n\n\nSleep supports a multitude of cognitive and affective processes. In this talk\, I will present work from our lab demonstrating the real-life effects of sleep loss on cognition\, examining the neural mechanisms through which sleep supports cognitive and affective processes\, and testing sleep-based interventions to improve memory and mental well-being. The talk will focus on three cognitive-affective domains: memory\, emotional processing\, and decision making. Within the domain of memory\, we used naturalistic designs to examine how the inherently interconnected nature of memories affects consolidation during sleep\, revealing critical boundary conditions and exposing the effects of memory reactivation on neural representations. Within the domain of affective processing\, we demonstrated that the activity patterns of affective neural networks during sleep reflect depression symptoms\, suggesting that depression is linked with maladaptive processing during sleep. In a separate study focusing on post-traumatic stress\, we used a sleep-based intervention to alleviate intrusive thoughts following exposure to distressing content. Finally\, we used a large-N\, fully naturalistic design to demonstrate the hazardous real-life impacts of modest sleep loss on daily decision-making. These lines of research converge to demonstrate the critical importance of sleep for cognition and the potential of sleep-based interventions for improving cognitive performance and mental well-being. URL:https://neurobiology.uci.edu/event/eitan-schechtman-phd-tenure-talk-seminar-series/ LOCATION:Dale Melbourne Herklotz Conference Room\, 300 Qureshey Research Lab\, Irvine\, California\, 92697-3800\, United States CATEGORIES:Tenure Talk END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270413T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270413T120000 DTSTAMP:20260706T184805Z CREATED:20250930T212850Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260706T184805Z UID:7826-1807614000-1807617600@neurobiology.uci.edu SUMMARY:Yavin Shaham\, PhD – James L. McGaugh Distinguished Seminar Series DESCRIPTION:McGaugh Distinguished Seminar Series\n\n\n\nTuesday\, April 13th\, 2027 at 11:00am\n\n\n\nThe seminar will be In-Person.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nYavin Shaham\, PhD\n\n\n\nBranch Chief & Senior Investigator\, Intramural Research Program\, NIDA-NIH\, Baltimore\, MD\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRats can make good choices: Effect of alternative food and social rewards on drug use and relapse in rat models of addiction \n\n\n\nAbstract: \n\n\n\nIn previous studies\, we and others used a rat model of drug relapse and craving to demonstrate time-dependent increases in drug seeking following experimenter-imposed (forced) abstinence in the homecage—a phenomenon we termed incubation of drug craving (Grimm et al.\, Nature\, 2001). More recently\, we developed a rat model to study drug craving and relapse following extended periods of voluntary abstinence in the drug-associated environment. Voluntary abstinence is achieved through a mutually exclusive discrete-choice procedure\, in which male and female rats with a history of intravenous opioid or psychostimulant self-administration choose daily between palatable food or social interaction with a peer versus the addictive drug. We propose that these voluntary abstinence models reflect key elements of operant-based human treatments\, such as contingency management (where alternative rewards are monetary vouchers) and the community reinforcement approach (where positive social interactions serve as reinforcement). In this lecture\, I will introduce the voluntary abstinence models and present behavioral and neural circuit analyses of drug craving and relapse after the removal of the food or social rewards. \n\n\n\nBio: \n\n\n\nYavin Shaham earned his B.S. and M.A. from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and his Ph.D. from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda\, MD. He completed postdoctoral training at Concordia University in Montreal under the mentorship of Dr. Jane Stewart. Before joining the NIDA Intramural Research Program (IRP)\, he was an investigator at the Addiction Research Center in Toronto. He is currently a tenured Branch Chief and Senior Investigator at NIDA. Shaham’s major awards include the Society for Neuroscience’s Jacob Waletzky Award for innovative research in drug and alcohol addiction (2006)\, the NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grant Award (2016)\, the NIDA-IRP Investigator Mentoring Award (2016)\, the European Behavioral Pharmacology Society (EBPS) Distinguished Achievement Award (2017)\, the NIH Director’s Award of Merit (2020)\, and the NIH Ruth Kirschstein Mentoring Award (2022). In 2023\, he was invited to present his research at a Nobel symposium on the “Social Brain.” Shaham has published over 250 empirical papers\, reviews\, and commentaries\, with more than 44\,500 citations and an h-index of 115 (Google Scholar). In 2018\, Shaham was named by The Web of Science as a “Highly Cited Researcher” (top 1%). From 2008 to 2018\, he served as a Reviewing and Senior Editor for The Journal of Neuroscience. Currently\, he is a Reviewing Editor for Neuropsychopharmacology and an Advisory Board Member for eNeuro. He also serves on the editorial boards of Biological Psychiatry\, Psychopharmacology\, Behavioural Pharmacology\, and Addiction Biology. Additionally\, Shaham was the President of EBPS from 2021 to 2023. His research focuses on the mechanisms of relapse to opioid and psychostimulant seeking\, using rat models developed in his lab. URL:https://neurobiology.uci.edu/event/yavin-shaham-mcgaugh-distinguished-seminar-series/ LOCATION:Herklotz Conference Room\, 300 Qureshey Research Lab\, Irvine\, California\, 92697-3800\, United States CATEGORIES:James L. McGaugh Distinguished Seminar END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR