Dr. Aoki has been selected to receive one of 30 prestigious NSF Presidential Faculty Fellowship awards based upon her outstanding research accomplishments. During the period of this award, Dr. Aoki will be using electron microscopic immunocytochemistry to identify chemically specified axons or growth cones in relation to transmitter receptors within intact cortical tissue. At birth, the density of synapses in the cerebral cortex is no more than 10% of the adult level, and nothing is presently known about the development of chemically specified synapses within cortex. The maturation of noradrenergic and excitatory synapses during early life is particularly important for understanding the mechanisms that underlie cortical plasticity. The importance of noradrenaline in cortical plasticity is reflected in a new working hypothesis supported by results that cortical plasticity is dictated by the dual modulation of excitatory synapses utilizing both catecholamines and acetylcholine.
