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| Michael J. O'Donovan, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Investigator |
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Dr. O'Donovan received his M.D. from the University of Bristol, England
in 1972 and his Ph.D. in neuroscience from the Sherrington School of
Physiology, at St. Thomas' Hospital Medical School, London in 1978. He
then came to the United States to do post-doctoral work at the NIH and
then Yale University, where with Dr. Lynn Landmesser he became
interested in the development of spinal networks. In 1982 he joined the
faculty of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the
University of Iowa. In 1988 he joined the Laboratory of Neural Control
at the NINDS and in 1991 became chief of the Section on Developmental
Neurobiology. His major research interest is the origin and function of
spontaneous activity in developing spinal networks.
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Staff:
- Dr. Nikolai Chub, Ph.D., Staff Scientist, (301) 402-4835 chubn@ninds.nih.gov
- Dr. Gal Haspel, Ph.D., Research Fellow haspelg@ninds.nih.gov
- George Z Mentis, Ph.D., Research Fellow, (301) 451-0933 mentisg@ninds.nih.gov
- Michael O'Donovan, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Investigator, (301) 496-8892
- Avinash Pujala, B.S., Graduate Student pujalaav@od.nih.gov
- Neil A Shneider, M.D., Ph.D., Staff Scientist shneiden@ninds.nih.gov
- Dr. Keun-Hang Susan Yang, Ph.D., Special Volunteer, (301) 451-0934 keunhangyang@ninds.nih.gov
- Itaru Yazawa, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow yazawi@ninds.nih.gov
Research Interests:
Research in this section is concerned with the development and operation of circuits in the spinal cord. We are currently devoting most of our effort to understanding the organization of spinal circuitry involved in locomotion of the neonatal mouse. We are particularly interested in identifying the last-order interneurons responsible for the rhythmic excitation and inhibition of motoneurons during locomotor-like activity generated by the isolated spinal cord.
We have also been using calcium and voltage-sensitive dye imaging to visualize the spatio-temporal patterns of neuronal activity associated with rhythmic locomotor-like bursting. This work has revealed the existence of a rostro-caudal 'wave' of excitation in the activation of rostral lumbar and sacral motoneurons during each cycle of rhythmic activity.
We are also examining how spontaneous rhythmic activity is generated by developing spinal networks. To address this question, we use classical electrophysiological techniques coupled with optical methods for monitoring the behavior of neuronal populations. Our current thinking is that spontaneous activity is a self-organizing property of developing spinal networks. In particular, it arises from the coupling of functionally excitatory recurrent connections within the network with a set of activity-dependent depressors of network excitability.
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Selected Recent Publications:
Oz M, Yang KH, Shippenberg TS, Renaud LP, O'Donovan MJ (InPress) Cholecystokinin B type receptors mediate a G protein-dependent depolarizing action of cholecystokinin (CCK-8s) on rodent neonatal spinal ventral horn neurons. , J.Neurophysiol..
Jean-Xavier C, Mentis GZ, O'Donovan MJ, Cattaert D, and Vinay L (2007) Dual personality of GABA/glycine-mediated depolarizations in immature spinal cord, PNAS 104, 11477-11482.
Full Text/Abstract
Personius KE, Chang Q, Mentis GZ, O'Donovan MJ and Balice-Gordon RJ (2007) Reduced gap junctional coupling leads to uncorrelated motor neuron firing and precocious neuromuscular synapse elimination, PNAS 104, 11808-11813.
Full Text/Abstract
Arai Y, Mentis GZ, Wu J and O'Donovan MJ (2007) Ventrolateral origin of activity during each cycle of spontaneous activity generated by the spinal cord of the chick embryo , PLoS ONE 2(5), e317.
Full Text/Abstract
Blivis D, Mentis GZ , O'Donovan MJ and Lev-Tov A (2007) Interaction between afferent pathways and central pattern generators in the neonatal rat spinal cord, J. Neurophysiol. 97, 2875-2886.
Full Text/Abstract
Mentis GZ, Siembab VC, Zerda R, O'Donovan MJ and Alvarez FJ (2006) Primary afferent synapses on developing Renshaw cells, J. Neurosci. 26, 13297-13310.
Full Text/Abstract
Tabak J, O'Donovan MJ and Rinzel J (2006) Differential control of active and silent phases in relaxation models of neuronal rhythms, J. Comp. Neurosci. 21, 307-328.
Full Text/Abstract
All Selected Publications
Contact Information:
Dr. Michael J. O'Donovan
Developmental Neurobiology Section
Laboratory of Neural Control, NINDS
Building 35, Room 3C-1014
35 Convent Drive, MSC 3700
Bethesda, MD 20892-3700
Telephone: (301) 496-8892 (office),
(301) 402-4835 (laboratory),
(301) 402-4836 (fax)
Email: odonovm@ninds.nih.gov
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