Andreas burkhalter washington

The goal is to understand how during development the strengths of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic connections are adjusted to generate unique circuit-specific balances of excitation and inhibition. We are employing a combination of anatomical and physiological techniques. For delineating area maps we are using axonal tracing of connections and extracellular recording of receptive fields to map the topographic organization of visual cortex. To study the structure of synapses and identify their postsynaptic targets we are using neuronal tracers and cell-type specific markers of excitatory and inhibitory neurons and analyses in the confocal and electron microscopes.

Laboratory findings demonstrate that the mouse and primate visual systems share fundamental similarities, suggesting that the mouse is a suitable model for mechanistic studies of neurological disorders in humans.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Research Many disorders of the visual system impair spatiotemporal processing. Yang, W. PMID Wang, Q. PMID: Carrasquilo, Y. For determining the mechanisms of synaptic transmission in interareal circuits we are using laser photo stimulation of channelrhodopsin labeled feedforward and feedback connections and whole cell recording of synaptically connected inhibitory and excitatory neurons in brain slices.

The results show that mouse visual cortex contains at least 11 visual areas, which are linked to distinct hierarchically organized streams that preferentially process spatial and temporal information. Our findings demonstrate that the mouse and primate visual systems share fundamental similarities, suggesting that the mouse is a suitable model for mechanistic studies of neurological disorders in humans. Washington University in St. Louis Relocating to St. Andreas H. Burkhalter, Ph.

Back to Directory Print Update Profile. Ji, W. Neuron in press. Yang, W. PMID