How do individual neurons and neural networks balance between plasticity and stability in the nervous system?

Welcome to the Schulz Lab in the Department of Biological Sciences and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program at the University of Missouri. Our lab focuses on how plasticity and stability are balanced in individual neurons and neural networks by studying the molecular regulation of ion channel proteins and how this influences neuronal excitability. Using cutting edge electrophysiology and molecular biology techniques, we are able to measure the gene expression of multiple ion channels in single neurons of a rhythmic motor network called the stomatogastric ganglion (STG). By studying these cells in the STG network, we can investigate not only the effects at the single cell level, but also the influence that changes in single neurons has on the network activity as a whole.

This work has implications not only for understanding how networks maintain functional output, but also what goes wrong when these networks fail, as is the case with some diseases which affect the circuitry of the brain and spinal cord.