Macdermott 9514720 The functional contacts between nerve cells are called synapses, and the development of the nervous system involves elaboration and specialization of those synaptic inputs. A fundamental aspect of development of the mammalian spinal cord is the representation of sensory input. While the sensory nerves have grown into the spinal cord by birth and already are synapsing with some of their target neurons, the quality of these sensory signals is immature. For example, the response to stimuli may be prolonged in time, and the area of the body, called the "receptive field", from which a central neuron receives input may be considerably broader than in the adult animal. This project uses pharmacology and physiology to study the role of a particular molecule, the NMDA- receptor that acts at the synapse to bind the NMDA transmitter molecule. This component of the nerve cell surface is proposed to have two different tasks during early postnatal development of the spinal cord. One is the processing of sensory pain signals in the spinal cord, and the other is the active fine tuning of synaptic connections between neurons involved in sensory transmission.Results from this work will not only help understand the maturation of sensory pain perception, but will have a broader impact on neurophysiology and developmental biology. The results will clarify the role of an important receptor molecule in development, and will help understand the developmental mechanisms by which sensory stimuli are represented in the central nervous system.
