This aim of this work is to better understand one of the important mechanisms that regulates the pattern of connections in the nervous system. The particular goal is to elucidate the way in which neurons compete to become dominant by eliminating the synapses of other neurons innervating the same target cells. New techniques (in staining and microscopy) will be used which permit visualization of nerve terminals over time in living animals. Synapses will be monitored as they undergo competitive reorganization. During this grant period, one focus will be on studies relating synaptic loss with changes in the distribution and function of postsynaptic receptor-rich areas. It is likely that changes in synaptic connections are a necessary part of the normal maturation of the nervous system and may also underly adult functions such as learning and memory. As such, understanding the biological basis of this phenomenon is fundamental to an understanding of brain maturation and function.
Sheu, Shu-Hsien; Tapia, Juan Carlos; Tsuriel, Shlomo et al. (2017) Similar synapse elimination motifs at successive relays in the same efferent pathway during development in mice. Elife 6: |
Turney, Stephen G; Lichtman, Jeff W (2012) Reversing the outcome of synapse elimination at developing neuromuscular junctions in vivo: evidence for synaptic competition and its mechanism. PLoS Biol 10:e1001352 |
Roberts, Mike; Jeong, Won-Ki; Vazquez-Reina, Amelio et al. (2011) Neural process reconstruction from sparse user scribbles. Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv 14:621-8 |
Fox, Michael A; Tapia, Juan Carlos; Kasthuri, Narayanan et al. (2011) Delayed synapse elimination in mouse levator palpebrae superioris muscle. J Comp Neurol 519:2907-21 |
Kasthuri, Narayanan; Lichtman, Jeff W (2010) Neurocartography. Neuropsychopharmacology 35:342-3 |
Srinivasan, Ranga; Li, Qing; Zhou, Xiaobo et al. (2010) Reconstruction of the neuromuscular junction connectome. Bioinformatics 26:i64-70 |
Jeong, Wan-Ki; Beyer, Johanna; Hadwiger, Markus et al. (2010) Ssecrett and NeuroTrace: interactive visualization and analysis tools for large-scale neuroscience data sets. IEEE Comput Graph Appl 30:58-70 |
Jeong, Won-Ki; Schneider, Jens; Turney, Stephen G et al. (2010) Interactive histology of large-scale biomedical image stacks. IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph 16:1386-95 |
Lu, Ju; Min, Wei; Conchello, José-Angel et al. (2009) Super-resolution laser scanning microscopy through spatiotemporal modulation. Nano Lett 9:3883-9 |
Gan, Wen-Biao; Grutzendler, Jaime; Wong, Rachel O et al. (2009) Ballistic delivery of dyes for structural and functional studies of the nervous system. Cold Spring Harb Protoc 2009:pdb.prot5202 |
Showing the most recent 10 out of 26 publications