Neuroscience, Neurodisability and Neurological Disorders Theme Seminar, 25th June 2025

A Neuroscience, Neurodisability and Neurological Disorders Theme Seminar is taking place on 25th June 2025, 12-1pm in the Colin Ingram Seminar Room, Henry Wellcome Building, Newcastle University.  Professor Marco Bocchio will be presenting.

Presentation title: Modulation of brain circuits underlying learning and emotional behaviour

Seminar Abstract: The amygdala, hippocampus, and medial prefrontal cortex form a tightly interconnected network critical for learning and emotional behaviour. These circuits are especially vulnerable in psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety, which together affect around 20% of people in the UK. A key modulator of this network is serotonin (5-HT), whose regulation underpins current treatments such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), as well as emerging therapies involving psychedelics like psilocybin. However, the functional organisation of these brain regions at the level of microcircuits—and how they are modulated by 5-HT and related compounds—remains poorly understood.

In this talk, I will present findings that advance our understanding of the microcircuit organisation of these networks, focusing on synaptic communication, interneuron activity, and the circuit dynamics that support cell assemblies—fundamental units of cognition. I will also discuss recent approaches for probing 5-HT modulation of these circuits, including the use of acute live human cortical tissue to investigate the effects of neuromodulators in the human brain. Finally, I will introduce emerging work on how 5-HT and psychedelics influence neuroplasticity and mental health.

Short bio: Marco Bocchio graduated with a BSc in Biotechnology and an MSc in Neurobiology from the University of Pavia, Italy. He then worked as a Research Assistant in Michael Häusser’s Neural Computation Lab at UCL, before completing a DPhil in Neuroscience at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Marco Capogna. After earning his PhD in 2016, he remained in Oxford for a postdoctoral position with Peter Somogyi.

In 2017, he joined Rosa Cossart’s lab at INSERM in Marseille, France, where he studied how developmental programmes and inhibitory circuits shape hippocampal physiology and learning-relevant neural mechanisms. In 2021, he returned to the UK for a postdoc at Newcastle University with Andy Jackson and Abhishek Banerjee, using closed-loop optical and electrophysiological tools to correct pathological network dynamics. He was appointed Assistant Professor at Durham University in 2022.