My project investigates the mechanism of action of the anesthetic, dexmedetomidine. One model proposes that the drug binds exclusively to receptors in the locus coeruleus, preventing norepinephrine release. Previous studies showed that absence of norepinephrine alone was sufficient for increased sensitivity to volatile anesthetics. We test the hypothesis that dexmedetomidine does not act solely at this nucleus, using transgenic mice lacking norephinephrine.

Neural tuning of a premotor neuron in the song control nucleus of an awake behaving adult male zebra finch. The figure represents the spectral-temporal receptive field (STRF) properties of a sample neuron collected following the presentation of a large battery of conspecific songs. The properties of these neurons are unusual because despite their role in generating the motor commands necessary for song production, these neurons also exhibit properties very similar to those observed in auditory forebrain.

The focus of my research is to identify and classify the neurons in the nucleus of the solitary tract, nTS, in the respiratory brainstem of zebra finch, which is thought to be the main source of non-auditory feedback during vocal production and learning. To understand the role of nTS, I take neurophysiological recordings in male zebra finch and use retrograde and anterograde tracers to analyze connectivity between nuclei.