Recent Advances in Auditory Neuroscience
Auditory neuroscience is a dynamic field, constantly evolving with new research and discoveries. This article highlights some of the recent advances in understanding the complexities of the auditory system, from the cellular level to the holistic impact of hearing loss on overall health.
Anatomy of the human ear.
The Cochlea and Sensory Neurons
The cochlea plays a crucial role in auditory processing, sending signals to the brain via two types of sensory neurons. It is also controlled by two neuronal feedback systems. The Liberman lab studies the neurophysiology and neuroanatomy of all four neuronal pathways in normal and damaged ears.
Hearing Loss: Causes and Mechanisms
Dr. Sharon Kujawa's research is focused on noise-induced and age-related hearing losses, the most common forms of hearing loss seen in adult patients. Epidemiological studies reveal a correlation between hearing loss and the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but the underlying causal mechanisms remain unclear.
Single-nucleus transcriptomic and histopathological analyses of the cochlea of aged macaques identified multiple features of degeneration, including accelerated hair cell loss, senescence of spiral ganglion neurons with neuroinflammation, and stria vascularis atrophy.
Treatments for Hearing Loss
Dr. Chen's laboratory is dedicated to developing treatments for hearing loss, spanning genetic, noise-induced, and age-related forms across all ages.
Regeneration and Development of Sensory Organs
The Koehler Lab focuses on understanding the development and regeneration of sensory organs. Their primary goal is to elucidate how cells from various layers of the developing embryo converge to form a functioning sense organ.
Structure of the inner ear.
Neural Circuit Functionality
Functional complexity of a neural circuit depends on features of its component neurons such as spiking characteristics, total number, synaptic structures, and connectivity.
Shown are fast-spiking auditory neurons in the mouse brainstem, filled with hydrazide (green) from patch-clamp recordings. These neurons receive input from calyx of Held nerve terminals that are morphologically and functionally diverse, labelled with dextran (magenta). A Hoescht stain (blue) marks all cell nuclei. The intrinsic excitability of these fast-spiking neurons are aligned to the strength of presynaptic calyx inputs, diversifying spiking patterns.
See the article by Raphael J. Chan and Lu-Yang Wang for more information on this organization of synaptic inputs that expands information coding capacity.
Mechanically Sensitive Ion Channels
We are interested in the gating of mechanically sensitive ion channels, which open in response to force on the channel proteins. My lab works on regeneration and the complex molecular signaling in cell fate determination. We are interested in sensory biology and the rebuilding of damaged sensory circuits.
Origins of Hearing
Hearing evolved in most amniotes by the late Permian, but its origins in reptiles remain poorly understood.
Clinical and Research Interests
Dr. Bradley Welling’s clinical and research interests focus primarily on NF2-associated vestibular schwannomas and the hearing loss, disequilibrium and facial paralysis that may result from the disease. In 1996, Dr. M. Patrick W. HullettMatthew K. LeonardEdward F. Kelsey M. JenkinsRachel C.
Brain Electrophysiology and Behavior
Dr. Richardson directs the Brain Modulation Lab, a human systems neuroscience lab studying brain electrophysiology and behavior in patients undergoing surgery for epilepsy, movement disorders, and psychiatric disease. Whether high-order frontal lobe areas receive raw speech input in parallel with early speech areas in the temporal lobe is unclear.