Savio Chan (Northwestern) gives us his thoughts on cell diversity in the external globus pallidus. He weighs in on how to define cell type, when to stop mining for more diversity, and whether cell type may even be a relevant construct in thinking about a network’s function.

In an interesting aside, Charlie bears out how Savio’s work delivers the key functional impact of a GPe-striatal connection that was originally left out of the basal ganglia wiring diagram because it appeared not to fit the direct/indirect pathway dichotomy. The group considers the age-old dilemma of editorializing observations to fit a functional story, landing on the principle, “follow the data!”

Duration: 35 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA)

Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA)

Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA)

acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.