Winter Conference on Neural Plasticity, Tahiti (Moorea) - February 22-Mar 1, 2002
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Winter Conference on Neural Plasticity, Tahiti (Moorea)
February 22-Mar 1, 2002
Our “hotel” and coral lagoon — most of the island is surrounded by coral, with convenient breaks
caused by fresh water flows from the mainland.
2/22-23/02 (Fri-Saturday)
The flight was uneventful but 4 hrs longer than I had thought: I miscalcuated the 2hr time difference
from LA to Tahiti, subtracting 2hrs from the 7hr departure-arrival difference instead of adding. I sat in front
of Alcino Silva (UCLA) and Fred Helmsetter was across the isle — we had a good discussion of some
synaptic plasticity issues! Alcino was probably the main draw at UCLA for me — does very interesting
work & is a real live wire. When we arrived at 2:30am, some people had planned ahead and booked a hotel
room. Fortunately, around 10 other conference-goers had joined me in not planning ahead — we sat around
waited until the 6:00am first flight to Moorea. I mostly hung out with Karim Nader, who did a postdoc with
Joe LeDoux and is just starting up at McGill — he is an interesting guy & we had exchanged several emails
earlier about some modeling ideas he had (turns out models already assumed what he had just shown to be
true of synaptic changes arising from learning).
I made it on the 6:30am flight (first one was full of locals and people who actually made reservations),
and arrived at the hotel only to find out that my room (actually a self-contained little bungalow) wouldn’t be
ready until 1pm! I just sat out on a lounge chair on the beach under a tree waiting (sitting just in front of my
bungalow, so I could see when it was ready). I dozed off and read – very pleasant and quite a view..
First lesson learned: even if you are completely in the shade, put on sunscreen because the reflected light
from the sand and sea was enough to give me a pretty good sunburn on my face!
Second lesson learned: never go on a trip to Tahiti w/out Yuko! It is paradise here, but everyone else has
their family/SO and I’m just a complete loner :( So, here I sit typing in these memories. Maybe I’ll go see
who’s at the bar.
The airport with Moorea in the background. The view from my lounge chair: that is the island of Tahiti.
2/24/02 (Sunday)
Woke up at 7:30 (safety alarm set for 9), went to breakfast & met Jerry & Julie by chance – no having to
eat breakfast alone! Checked out the dive shop on the way back – my infrequent diving history and lack of a
buddy was going to hold up Bruce & Carol from going deeper than 60ft, so I waited to go on a later dive @
2pm which was led by the instructor. In the mean time, went in the outrigger canoe (free!) along the reefs
w/ Jerry & Julie – found that the water never gets very deep and the coral never gets very big, but it was fun
to paddle — after dropping off Julie (she didn’t like to be out so far near the breaking waves), Jerry & I had
fun paddling around looking for the key that floated out of his pocket and surfing some small waves.
The dive was not that great — the coral was dim and relatively plain at 70ft, and I had some minor trouble
clearing my right ear. Then 1/2 way thru the dive my eyes starting stinging badly — I think my sunscreen
had oozed into them. It was really nasty and all I wanted to do was reach in and wipe but obviously I could
not. I was also vaguely worried about some kind of toxic gas in the tank or something. In the end I just
closed my eyes a lot and they recovered. The depth gage was (a) clearly inaccurate and (b) in metric, so I
couldn’t really tell what depth we were at but the guide had a computer so I just trusted him. I took lots of
pictures that probably won’t look that great. The highlight was a lion fish in a little crevice — that picture
will almost certainly not come out.
Relaxed after the dive reading my physics book (which has been absolutely fantastic and a lifesaver
for all the solitary moments) and joined J&J for dinner at 6:30, then to the data blitz and the start of the
conference at 8:00 — some interesting gems in the data blitz. The “open bar” reception afterwards was
very weak mai tai’s and peanuts, then to bed.
My bungalow!
View out the porch of my bungalow. The high rent district: overwater bungalows.
P1: SKH/dat P2: ARK/vks QC: ARK
2/25/02
December 24, 1997(Monday)
16:49 Annual Reviews AR050-06
The morning session (8:30-10:30) was on aging effects on learning: one talk showed that blueberries,
strawberries, and spinach were able to rescue declined learning in elderly rats! I love my berry breakfast
all the more! Prunes in theory should be the best, along with spirulina, but for some reason these were not
included in the full test. Then, we rented a hobie cat (16, in good shape, with a trapeze) and went for a 2+hr
sail around the lagoon — it was great! This was Jerry & Julie’s first real sailing and they loved it! We flew
a hull (of course) — the wind was pretty strong but it was still hard CREBto getAND with 3 on board —129
it up MEMORY the key
moment came when Jerry saw my key just about to go overboard and lunged to the leward side – then the
hull(Bacskai
popped right etupaland Jerry Hagiwara
1993, nearly went overboard!
et al 1993). I headed
The up phosphorylation
and tossed the mainsheet and we plopped
of CREB by
back down — after sinking the leward hull pretty deep to aft and coming to a screetching halt. In general
kinases from several signaling pathways may be a mechanism for the conver-
they’re supposed to have better wind around here, but it has been relatively calm of late. Today was the best
gence
so far but it of thesewas
probably signaling
only 15ktspathways (Figure
max, and typically 1) We
8-10. (Dash
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tacked backincreases
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Only activation
a few coral headsofw/synaptic
the rudders,
which popped up nicely. J&J bought me a tasty cheeseburger
N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) turn on CaMK (perhaps CaMKIV),in the other restaurant available to us (we are
basically captives here) – had only 2 small croissants for breakfast and it was 2:30 when we got back in —
which may also phosphorylate and activate CREB in neurons (Bito et al 1996,
we were starved!
Deisseroth et al 1996).
The evening session (5:00-7:00)Interestingly, recent evidence
featured mind numbing flow-charts of suggests that increases
kinases (special enzymes that
in nuclear
do stuff to make youcalcium can also activate
learn), transcription CREB,protiens,
factors, regulatory indicating
and thethat nuclear
ubiquitous kinases
Calcium driving
may have a direct role in the modulation of CREB activity (Hardingham et (ERK
everything — a lot of it made sense to me at a general level but it is easy to get lost in the terminology al
= MAP Kinase,
1997). in case you’re wondering — both are used in talks and ERK is apparently a specific instance
of a MAPK). Afterwards I had a good discussion with Alcino at the open bar (weak gin & tonic tonight) —
I couldn’t remember if the kinase that he was telling me about on the plane was related to this ERK thing —
Transcriptional Repression
turns out he doesn’t really think ERK is all that important, and the real actor is CAM Kinase and calmodulin
Justcombinations
II (the as phosphorylation
of these labelsofmaySer133 seems
be wrong). to beboth
Of course, a critical step intheCREB
of these activate acti-
CREB promoter
whichvation,
figuresdephosphorylation
strongly in Alcino’s work. of Dinner
this residue
was a tastyis but
important
unusual saladfor(corn,
the inactivation of
beets, hearts-of-palm,
cabbage and a little bit of lettuce) and a big plate of sashimi tuna w/ wasabi & soy sauce (no sushi rice tho
:().
Figure 1 Scheme for transcriptional regulation by cAMP responsive element binding protein
(CREB). Phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of CREB is regulated by calcium signaling and
the cAMP/PKA pathway. Only phosphorylated CREB can interact with CREB binding protein
2/26/02 (Tuesday)
Went to morning session and then joined J&J for a car-ride around the island (37mi) — mountain peaks
are incredibly jagged and green and beautiful.
Went late to the evening session on cannabanoid receptors (yes, the ganja receptors): coolest result was
that one type of basket cell (inhibitory) will be shut off via a retrograde messenger carried back from the
excitatory neuron in a voltage-dependent fashion: only if the receiving neuron is sufficiently excited will
it tell the inhibitory neuron to stop shutting it off and let it get more excited: provides a mechanism for
nonlinearities in inhibition where winners get to win more. Then, Jerry pulled me out and we went over our
talks. Dinner was a buffet with a festive Tahitian dancing show for entertainment.
Jagged lava ridge as seen on our drive.
More jagged peaks: I saw a postcard that clearly showed how the island is basically a huge volcano crater. A cliff with a hole in it!.
Jerry and the pineapple truck. Another holey mountain.
The local foliage. We saw a few brightly colored trees, but not as much color in general as I was expecting.
Another beautiful lagoon with a lighthouse in the distance. Jerry & Julie.
Me! Jerry watering the plants..
2/27/02 (Wednesday)
Morning session (missed first talk due to writing of notes of ideas from physics book) on recovery of
function: more of brain gets devoted to parts of body that are used more! Missed last talk to prepare for
dive. Dive was spectacular: saw two schools of dolphins on boat ride over to dive spot; guide had a tuna
head in his BC and attracted tons of fish & sharks: many black tip and 2 lemon sharks (bigger), plus lots of
other fishies. Two different turtles. Second dive was a drift dive out a channel with a brisk current — lots of
fun flying sensations and steep coral walls w/ many caves — I had a great time! Came back just in time to
get a cheeseburger (in paradise), shower, take a short nap, and go to evening session.
Evening session was on various forms of LTP: 2 interesting results. 1: LTP results in increase in number
of postsynaptic receptors (McGee) (CaMKII dependent). 2. Dendrites have inactivating K+ channels that
produce additional associativity of pre & postsynaptic activity (beyond basic NMDA mechanism): Only if
dendrite is already depolarized enough to inactivate these K+ channels does backpropagating spike let in a
lot of Calcium (resulting in LTP). Banquet dinner (same buffet as always, just in a different location and not
billed to the room) – had good discussions with Mike Fanselow (UCLA) — wants to collaborate w/ Jerry
& me! Many sailors there: all complained that wives didn’t like to sail..
Dolphins playing in the bow wake on the way over.Schools of fish attracted to the guide’s tuna head in his BC. One of many black-tip sharks!
My breath rising up the steep cliff wall. Sunset at the oasis.
Sunset over the pier. Sunset with Tahiti (the island) in the background.
Jerry hanging out on my porch. The palms outside my bungalow.
2/28/02 (Thursday)
Our talks (finally) were in the morning session. Fanselow started with some interesting data showing
that if you lesion the hippocampus and then shock the rat (poor rats!), they show fear to the context in
which they were shocked, but if you lesion after shocking, they don’t show context fear. Jerry followed up
with a summary of our recent empirical work, concluding with the spectacular “bucket” experiment which
had the crowd gasping (almost) with amazement (ok, I exaggerate a little, but it was very well received).
Then, I took a step back and tried to motivate these experiments through the computational models, and
then showed a model of the “bucket” experiment, which people seemed to enjoy (and get). Then, Fred
Helmsetter presented a bunch of interesting fMRI data on fear conditioning in humans. We received many
complements on our session, and I was able to plug a few key things that I wanted these LTP people to
look at experimentally, and one of the biggies, Dan Johnston, came up afterward and asked for more details
on one of these things. Later that night (long day!) I was able to discuss the other main thing (how to do
error-driven learning in terms of calcium, which I published back in ’96) with another leader in the field,
Roger Nicoll (UCSF) — he was a fun guy and he seemed genuinely interested in the ideas, so we’ll see if
anything comes of it. In any case, it was great to make contact with these folks.
After the session, we checked out (checkout time: noon), tried to rent the Hobie again (guy was in Tahiti
for the day) and resorted to paddling around in the outrigger again. We caught the 4:45 ferry back to Papeete
(Tahiti). The ferry was an amazingly fast jet-catamaran (see video), and we plowed through a storm cell
on our way over so it was super windy on deck. Alcino got plastered in the downpour after ignoring my
warning to duck below. At the airport (storing bags) we ran into various other conference-goers (including
Nicoll), and went to a fancy local hotel for dinner. We basically just killed time wandering around and
looking at the stars sitting on lounge chairs until we could check in for our 2:30am flight. We couldn’t find
the southern cross, but did see some very strange stars that were blinking all manner of colors (red, white,
blue, green) — people thought they were airplanes but they clearly were stars. The flight was uneventful
and I managed to sleep. I was seated next to an amateur outrigger paddler and her 2yr old daughter — she
had just been laid off from United and was enjoying one last discounted flight..
View of Moorea from the ferry.Rainbow as we approach Tahiti through a storm. The jet spray out the back of the ferry, with Moorea receding in the background.
Papeete harbor. Lights on the water as we kill time looking at the stars..
March 1 (Friday – My Birthday!)
I got back at 7:30pm in Denver, went to bed and the next day had a full day of grad student visiting &
recruiting, followed by a party at our house (very fun), during which time my “party of 5” collaborators (Jon
Cohen, Todd Braver, David Noelle and my postdoc Nicolas Rougier (returning from France)) all arrived
at various times. They all stayed with us, and we managed to get a few hours of work done in between
partying (another party on Sunday for all of the birthday celebrants: Me, Nicolas (35 on Feb 14) and Axel
Cleeremans & his wife Nathalie (both 40; Axel is a visiting scientist here for the year from Brussels)). On
Monday we went skiing w/ the gang — everyone had a great time and I had a major breakthrough on the
last run of the day when I borrowed some genuine Mogul skis — turns out they make a huge difference!
Now I’m going to get some. Jon gave a great talk to the dept on Tues (the original seed of the visit) and we
all concluded that it was a great visit all around. Now, I will need to sleep for many days to recover from it
all!
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