Section on Nervous System Development and Plasticity

Head: Richard D. Fields

The research of this Unit is directed toward understanding how the brain develops and modifies its structure and function through experience. This work seeks to identify genes involved in activity-dependent plasticity of the nervous system, understand how these genes are regulated by appropriate patterns of neural impulse activity, and determine the functional consequences of impulse activity on nervous system development and plasticity in the adult nervous system. Current studies include the effects of impulse activity on non-neuronal cells (glia), the role of gene expression in long-term potentiation, spatial and temporal regulation of intracellular signaling pathways from action potentials to the nucleus, effects of impulse activity on myelination, neurite outgrowth, fasciculation, and synaptic function. Primary methods include confocal microscopy, calcium imaging, electrophysiology, molecular biological techniques, microhybridization arrays, and biochemical studies in neuron cultures and brain slice preparations.

Resources

• Employee Listing
• E-Mail the Lab: fields@helix.nih.gov
• SNSDP Home Page