| Research
Interests: Sensory inputs (hearing, vision, balance, somatic senses, smell, and taste) play critical roles in development of the nervous system. Deprivation of hearing inputs (e.g. deafness by cochlea removal) produces profound changes in structure, function, and metabolic process of central auditory neurons, followed by neuronal degeneration. G-protein-coupled receptors (e.g. metabotropic glutamate receptors) seem to be involved in this process. Our research, using primarily electrophysiology (e.g. whole-cell patch clamping) and microscope imaging (e.g. immunohistochemistry) techniques, investigates how ion channels and synaptic transmission in central auditory neurons are influenced by G-protein-coupled receptors under normal hearing and deafness conditions. We aim to further our understanding of mechanisms underlying hearing deprivation-induced cell death, and to provide information that may be crucial to improving treatment of patients with deafness. The Figure shows robust expression of Kv1.1, one protein subunit of low voltage-gated potassium channels, in avian cochlear nucleus neurons. Currents mediated by Kv1.1-containing channels are large in amplitude and long lasting (blue: voltage command from -70 to -50 mV; red: low voltage-gated potassium channel current; yellow: 0.3 nA and 20 ms for the vertical and horizontal scale bars, respectively). |
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