Principal Investigator, Extramural Fellow
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Electrophysiological properties of developing neurons

For my second postdoctoral experience, I received slice physiology training to examine effects of neonatal extrinsic experience on auditory brainstem plasticity. I developed plans to investigate the developmental trajectory of ion channel characteristics in auditory brainstem medial superior olive (MSO) neurons near hearing onset. The MSO is responsible for auditory spatial localization in the horizontal plane via detection of interaural time differences (ITDs), temporal difference in the range of microseconds, in the arrival of a sound to each of the two ears. Potassium current maturation in MSO neurons is tightly correlated in time with hearing onset. However, it is unknown if this maturation is a function of an intrinsic developmental program that unfolds in the absence of sound exposure changes, or if it is dependent on extrinsic stimulation. I devised protocols and procedures to induce mild neonatal conductive hearing loss (CHL) using surgical atresia, and to examine intrinsic and synaptic properties of MSO neurons after hearing onset. Here, I planned to compare MSO electrophysiology parameters between monaural, binaural, and no CHL animals. Because MSO neurons are responsible for binaural detection, I predicted unique potassium channel kinetics in monaural CHL animals. I honed the skills to reliably record intrinsic and synaptic properties of mammalian MSO neurons, including basic mastery of the IgoPro programming envrionment. I also developed a detailed IACUC protocol for atresia induction, as well as multiple hardware-software configurations and surgical procedures for hearing assessment using cochlear microphonic recordings. I used scavenged tissue to teach myself middle and inner ear anatomy. I plan to use these skills for my independent research objectives.