Douglas L. Oliver, Ph.D.

SYNAPTIC ORGANIZATION OF THE AUDITORY SYSTEM

Department of Neuroscience
http://www.uchc.edu/
Farmington, CT 06030-3401
Fax: (860) 679-8766
Email: doliver@neuron.uchc.edu
Main Laboratory - L-4039; 679-2549
Slice Physiology Lab - L-4038; 679-3559
Neurolucida/Imaging Lab - L-4062; 679-7644
DLO Office - L-4043; 679-2241

Neuroscience Study Abroad Program

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LAB MEMBERS:

Tetsufumi Ito , PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor
University of Fukui , Japan
tito@neuron.uchc.edu

Deborah Bishop,
Research Associate
bishop@neuron.uchc.edu

William Loftus, Ph.D.
Instructor
loftus@neuron.uchc.edu

 LAB MEMBERS OF THE PAST

RESEARCH INTERESTS

We discover a new synapse in the inferior colliculus. This is a calyx-like synapse that surrounds the cell body and proximal dendrites of large neurons. SEE THE WHOLE IC.

A Discontinuous Tonotopic Organization in the Inferior Colliculus. There is a defined space of tissue devoted to a given frequency bandwidth.

The Cytoarchitecture of the Inferior Colliculus Revisited: A Common Organization of the Lateral Cortex. A new look at the subdivisions of the inferior colliculus.

Neuronal responses to lemniscal stimulation in laminar brain slices of the inferior colliculus. New ways to study synaptic stimulation and microcircuitry in the inferior colliculus.

Granule cells in cochlear nucleus activated by sound. Sound activation is detected by FOS protein expression.

Laminar inputs from dorsal cochlear nucleus and ventral cochlear nucleus to the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus: Two patterns of convergence. Thin and wide laminae in the inferior colliculus

Acoustic environment determines phosphorylation state of the Kv3.1 potassium channel in auditory neurons. Sound changes the K current.

GABA-A Synapses Shape Neuronal Responses to Sound Intensity in the Inferior Colliculus. How GABA synapses control sound intensity coding.

Organization of Binaural Excitatory and Inhibitory Inputs to the Inferior Colliculus from the Superior Olive. Each frequency-band lamina in the inferior colliculus may comprise several functional modules with different combinations of inputs.

Topography of ITD Coding in Projections of Medial Superior Olive to Inferior Colliculus. The representation of sound location along the azimuth in the inferior colliculus most likely relies on a complex, non-linear map.

Direct projections from the cochlear nucleus to the medial geniculate body. A multi-modal parallel pathway?

Synaptic modification in neurons of the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus. We show LTP in the inferior colliculus.

Cell types in inferior colliculus defined by ionic currents. New neuron types are based on unique K+ and Ca++ currents discovered in brain slice experiments.

TEACHING:

MEDS 5384 Mammalian Neuroanatomy

MEDS 5377 Neurobiology of Hearing (taught in Salamanca Spain)

Organ Systems 1 (neuroscience for medical and dental students)