Speaker: Dr. Tobias Teichert, Associate Professor of of Psychiatry and Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh
Abstract: The primate brain is a densely interconnected organ whose function is best understood by recording from the entire structure in parallel, rather than parts of it in sequence. However, available methods either have limited temporal resolution (functional magnetic resonance imaging), limited spatial resolution (macroscopic electroencephalography), or a limited field of view (microscopic electrophysiology). To address this need, we developed a volumetric, mesoscopic recording approach (MePhys) by tessellating the volume of a monkey hemisphere with 992 electrode contacts that were distributed across 62 chronically implanted multi-electrode shafts. We showcase the scientific promise of MePhys by describing the functional interactions of local field potentials between the more than 300,000 simultaneously recorded pairs of electrodes. We find that a subanesthetic dose of ketamine –believed to mimic certain aspects of psychosis– can create a pronounced state of functional disconnection and prevent the formation of stable large-scale intrinsic states. We conclude that MePhys provides a new and fundamentally distinct window into brain function whose unique profile of strengths and weaknesses complements existing approaches in synergistic ways.
About the Speaker: Dr. Tobias Teichert received a BA in Mathematics (2002) and an MA-equivalent diploma in Psychology (2003) from the University of Düsseldorf, Germany. In 2007 he received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Marburg. After a post-doctoral position at Columbia University, Dr. Teichert was appointed to the rank of Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh in September 2013. He was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2022. He holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Bioengineering.