Achievement

Researchers in the lab of COB faculty John Rinzel found, by combining computational modeling and in vitro electrophysiology, that excitatory subthreshold synaptic potentials in auditory brain stem neurons were temporally sharpened rather than broadened (as classical theory predicts) as they propagate along dendrites toward the soma. The primary mechanism is the subthreshold potassium current that curtails the tail of the synaptic potential. A paper is in press at Nature Neuroscience. In a related achievement they found, again by combining computational modeling and in vitro electrophysiology, that excitatory subthreshold synaptic potentials in auditory brain stem neurons have faster rise times for the ipsilateral ear than for the contralateral ear. This difference plays a major role in shaping the tuning of these neurons in their computation of interaural time difference for sound localization. A paper has been accepted for publication in PLoS Biology.