Research

During development neural circuits must achieve appropriate network behavior with the proper levels of activity, and thus excitability and synaptic strength. Our lab focuses on the mechanisms that act to ensure that developing networks achieve appropriate excitability. Collectively, these mechanisms are referred to as homeostatic plasticity; when developing circuits face perturbations that challenge their ability to function properly, compensatory changes in synaptic strength and intrinsic membrane excitability are engaged to recover network function. In certain neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism, the nervous system develops with inappropriate levels of activity and it is not clear why homeostatic mechanisms fail to maintain normal activity levels. We study this process in normal development and in neurodevelopmental disorders using electrophysiological, optical, and molecular techniques. We also take advantage of several different model systems, in vivo and in vitro, to ask these questions including the developmentally advantageous chick embryo (spinal cord and sympathetic nervous system), mouse/rat cortical cultures, as well as the developing mouse barrel cortex.