A critical issue for both neuroscientists and society at large concerns the relative roles of genetics and environment in the postnatal development of the human brain. Environmental stimuli are wide ranging, from the detrimental (chemical toxicants, for example) to the beneficial (a mother's instructions), but all have the potential to influence the developmental program of a child as directed by its genome. The research done in the Synaptic and Developmental Plasticity Group focuses on determining 1) how the connections in the brain (synapses) change on a long-term basis in response to neuronal activity, 2) how synaptic plasticity during early postnatal development is different from plasticity in the adult, and 3) how experience shapes brain circuitry through synapse elimination during development. Though only in operation for six months, we have made significant progress in developing some of the methodologies that will be used in achieving the first of the aforementioned projects. We believe that long-term changes in synaptic efficacy require expression of new RNA and toward that end, we have focused on the regulation of gene expression by neuronal action potentials. To measure enzyme activity modulated by action potentials, we have developed a method for isolating nuclei from small amounts of brain tissue, which had first been electrically stimulated in vitro. We have also perfected a method of measuring the activation of up to 96 transcription factors using a protein/DNA array. These techniques will allow the examination of transcriptional regulation by neuronal activity and will lead to an understanding of how genes required for plasticity are regulated. Together with the other goals listed above, these studies should bring us a better appreciation of how environmental factors play a role in brain development so that we may begin to address the associated problems of brain disease caused by toxicant exposure.
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