NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY AND JOHN DISTERHOFT - Key Persons

Aldis Weible

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Assistant Research Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, or

Amy Gamelli

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Associate Director, US Medical Review, AbbVie Inc, North Chicago, IL

Bridget McKay

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AP Biology Teacher, Cascade High School, Everett, WA

Carmen Lin

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Postdoctoral Fellow
Research Lab Alumni

I am interested in the neural mechanisms that underlie learning and memory and how these mechanisms can go awry in aging. I am specifically interested in a region of the brain that supports hippocampus-dependent associative learning, the lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC). Using whole-cell patch, I measure the intrinsic excitability of LEC neurons following the acquisition of a hippocampus-dependent task to understand the neural mechanisms that support learning in the LEC. I also measure the neuronal excitability from aged animals to investigate how altered neuronal physiology may underlie aging-related learning deficits, leaving the LEC unable to support learning-related changes.

Catherine C. Kaczorowski

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Assistant Professor, the Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME

Craig Weiss

cw..@northwestern.edu

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Research Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL
Research Professor, Department of Neuroscience

My research interests are centered about a systems approach to the study of learning and memory in adult and aging mammalian systems. I use a multidisciplinary approach to try and answer the question of how memories are created and stored, and affected by the aging process. The learning paradigm I most often use in addressing these questions is eyeblink conditioning. This is a Pavlovian classical conditioning paradigm in which we typically pair a tone with a puff of air to the eye in order to study the mechanisms that mediate the conditioned blink. The techniques I use in addressing this question are: behavior, multichannel single neuron recording, lesions, neuronal tract tracing, behavioral pharmacology and functional magnetic resonance imaging As a graduate student of John Disterhoft I examined the abducens nucleus and accessory abducens nucleus to study the final motor output of the system. Then as a student of Jim Houk and Alan Gibson, I examined interactions of the inferior olivary nucleus (which transmits signals about the airpuff to the cerebellum) and the red nucleus (which transmits signals from the cerebellum to premotor and motor neurons). As a post-doctoral student in Richard Thompson's laboratory I examined the physiology of cerebellar Purkinje cells during eyeblink conditioning, and I developed an interest in the effects of age on learning and memory. I utilized eyeblink conditioning in freely moving rats to confirm previous reports (in rabbits and humans) of a progressive age-related deficit. I also demonstrated important differences among strains of rats, and that certain forms of stress can actually facilitate learning. Currently my interests are divided among several areas that are similar to those of my colleague and collaborator John Disterhoft. These include examining interactions between the prefrontal cortex and thalamus and the effects of hippocampal-cerebellar interactions during learning and aging, pharmacological facilitation of learning in aging subjects, imaging of the learning pathways with fMRI, and using eyeblink conditioning in mice to characterize different knockout and transgenic animals. I am also the Director of the Northwestern University Behavioral Phenotyping Core (NU BPC) which exists to help others screen their mice or rats for behavioral changes due to aging or treatments such as genetic or pharmacological manipulations.

Daniel M. Curlik II

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Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, York College of Pennsylvania, York, PA

Dina Simkin

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Postdoctoral Fellow, the Ken & Ruth Davee Department of Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL

Eddy A. Van der Zee

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Professor, University of Groningen, Netherlands

Eugenie Suter

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Medical Student, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL

Felix Nunez-Santana

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Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neurology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL

Fernando A. Oliveira

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Associate Professor, Department of Biological Science, Federal University of São Paulo ( UNIFESP ) Diadema - São Paulo, Braz

James R. Moyer

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Associate Dean, Associate Professor, Psychology Dept., University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI

Jessie Guinn Jr.

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Assistant Dean of STEM, Arcadia University, Glenside, PA

Joel P. Black

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Systems Analyst, Symantec

John F. Disterhoft

jd..@northwestern.edu

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Magerstadt Memorial Research Professor

John F. Disterhoft is the Ernest J. and Hattie H. Magerstadt Memorial Research Professor of Physiology and former Director of The Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program (NUIN). He is also a former Editor of Behavioral Neuroscience. The Disterhoft laboratory is part of the Department of Physiology in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.

John M. Power

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Senior Lecturer, Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

L.T. Thompson III

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Associate Professor, Behavioral & Brain Sciences, Univ. of Texas at Dallas, TX

Leslie Sargent Jones

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Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC

Luke Flores

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Director, BioExcel and ChemExcel Program, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

Maria Carillo

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Chief Science Officer, Alzheimer 's Association, Chicago, IL

Martha-Gracia Knuttinen

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Cardiovascular Radiologist, University of Chicago, Chicago

Mary Kando

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Research Technologist of the Behavioral Phenotyping Core
Senior Core Technician

Mary holds a B.S. in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a M.S. in Biotechnology from Rush University.

Matthew D. McEchron

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Director, Scholarly Projects Professor, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Phoenix, AZ

Matthew Oh

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Research Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience
Research Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL

I am interested in identifying why learning becomes progressively more difficult with normal aging. With this broad goal in mind, I am studying the cellular properties of principle neurons of the hippocampus as an animal ages and after an animal has learned a task that involve the hippocampus. Thus far, we have identified that hippocampal pyramidal neurons (the principle output neurons of the hippocampus) become more excitable (that is, they are able to fire more action potentials) following successful learning. More importantly, the same population of neurons becomes less excitable with normal aging. Thus, it is our working hypothesis that the reduced excitability levels of the hippocampal pyramidal neurons with normal aging is a cause of the learning deficits observed in the aging population. We are currently using state of the art calcium imaging techniques to further characterize the changes in the hippocampal pyramidal neurons following learning and with normal aging. By systematically examining these cellular changes that occur following successful learning and with normal aging, a goal is to identify potential pharmacological targets to ameliorate and/or reverse the normal aging-related cognitive deficits. In addition, given that incidence of Alzheimer's disease increases with age, it is another goal of our research to translate our findings and approach to identify the cellular changes that occur in this debilitating condition.