A complex cell structure called myelin has evolved to speed up and finely tune the transmission of electrical signals in the brain. In numerous human diseases, myelin is damaged and must be removed before tissue repair can occur.
Implanted brain-computer interfaces (BCls) recently made the jump from a tool requiring a custom hardware setup at the bedside and the full-time assistance of a scientist, to a small off-the-shelf implant that can be used independently to control programs on a tablet without assistance.
One major hurdle to treating diseases affecting vision is a fundamental lack of understanding of how light signals sent from the retina influence our behavior and physiology.
During sensory perception, neural circuitry processes information by filtering, amplifying, and integrating electrical signals. The proposed project focuses on uncovering the underpinnings of such processes using electrophysiology, brain imaging, and behavioral analyses.
During many neurological diseases, brain regions that are essential for learning and memory become over-excitable, due to excessive nerve impulses between nerve cells. This causes nerve cells in these regions to behave abnormally or die, leading to brain damage.
The proper function of the brain requires the concerted action of billions of interconnected brain cells called neurons. Most neurons are excitatory and their activation releases glutamate, which increases brain activity. However, some are inhibitory and their activation releases GABA, which decr...
Without movements, we are relegated to being trapped inside ourselves. Our understanding of the distributed brain circuits responsible for deciding what, how and why to perform movements has been limited by an inability to characterize how distributed networks of interlinked neurons orchestrate b...
The specialized chemosensory cells within the tongue and gut relay appetitive and aversive signals to the brain via peripheral ganglion neurons. Taste dysfunction is common in adults (17%) and even more prevalent in the aging population.
Visualizing the flow of information through the complex and intertwined networks of the brain is a long‐sought goal of neuroscience.
Determining how distinct memories are formed, linked, and retrieved, and the role of fear in these processes, is an essential part of understanding PTSD, a debilitating disorder characterized by the re-experiencing of a traumatic event in the form of persistent and intrusive memories.
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