Faculty with interests in excitable systems use multifaceted approaches to investigate how
excitable cells - neurons and muscles - receive, process, and relay information and how
various factors modulate the functioning of specific neural and muscular systems. The
focus is on understanding how systems of excitable cells operate together to generate
behavior. The species under study include nematodes, insects, fish, birds, cats, sub-human
primates, and humans. Techniques used include patch and whole-cell voltage clamping,
intracellular and extracellular recording, neuroanatomical staining, electromyographic
recording, and kinematic analysis of behavior. Computational analysis of neural systems is
also represented.
Several laboratories investigate how the electrical properties, intracellular biochemistry, and synaptic connectivity of individual neurons and muscles contribute to their function within larger circuits (Klug, O'Day, Lockery, Tublitz, Weeks). Higher-order processing of sensory information and the neural substrates of attention are addressed by a number of laboratories (B. Gordon-Lickey, M. Gordon-Lickey, Marrocco, Takahashi). The modulation of neural and muscular systems by hormones (Tublitz, Weeks), neurotransmitters (Marrocco, B. Gordon-Lickey), and behavioral experience (Lockery, Weeks, B. Gordon-Lickey, M. Gordon-Lickey, Woollacott) are also studied. Other groups investigate how properties of the nervous and musculoskeletal systems contribute to motor capabilities throughout the human life span (Jensen, Woollacott). Computer simulation is used in several laboratories to investigate computation within neural assemblages (Lockery, Takahashi).