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Education

• Ph.D. Institution: The University of Tübingen, Germany and Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen
• Postdoctoral: Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, T?bingen; Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max-Planck Society, T?bingen; Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO

Research Interests

Structure and function of the cerebellar cortical network, cerebro-cerebellar interaction, neuronal mechanisms of motor control, dynamics of neuronal communication during behavior.

Many areas of the brain collaborate in a finely tuned manner in the control of behavior. The neocortex and the cerebellum are two key players in this concert. They are strongly connected via massive fiber bundles and have both grown equally in size during the course of vertebrate evolution. The network architectures of these two closely collaborating networks, however, are fundamentally different. For example, the neocortical network contains abundant excitatory feedback loops and the connectivity between neurons appears to be random. In contrast to this, the cerebellar cortical network has neurons and fibers arranged in a highly geometrical way. Excitatory and inhibitory fibers are nicely separated and run in orthogonal directions. There is no significant excitatory feedback. Cerebro-cerebellar communication occurs via intermediary nuclei. Output from the neocortex is relayed to the cerebellum via neurons in the pontine nuclei and cerebellar output reaches the neocortex via thalamus.

The essential structural differences between the neocortical and the cerebellar cortical network suggest that the two perform entirely different computations. I am interested in understanding what neuronal computations the cerebellum performs and how it exchanges information with the neocortex during the control of behavior. To address these questions I investigate neuronal communication within and between neocortex and cerebellum in two ways: 1) Multiple-electrode recording techniques including simultaneous recordings from neocortex and cerebellum during behavior are combined with behavioral analysis to link neuronal mechanisms to behavioral output, 2) Simultaneous multiple-electrode extra and intracellular recordings provide insights into the highly dynamic interaction between individual pairs of neurons and between single neurons and their surrounding network.

Representative Publications

• Shires CB, Saputra JM, King L, Thompson JW, Heck DH, Sebelik ME, Boughter JD Jr. Histopathological and Postoperative Behavioral Comparison of Rodent Oral Tongue Resection: Fiber-Enabled CO2 Laser versus Electrocautery. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2012 Apr 24. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 22535916.
• Cao Y, Roy S, Sachdev RN, Heck DH. Dynamic correlation between whisking and breathing rhythms in mice. J Neurosci. 2012 Feb 1;32(5):1653-9. PubMed PMID: 22302807.
• Jerome J, Heck DH. The age of enlightenment: evolving opportunities in brain research through optical manipulation of neuronal activity. Front Syst Neurosci. 2011;5:95. Epub 2011 Dec 7. PubMed PMID: 22275886; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3257845.
• Roy S, Zhao Y, Allensworth M, Farook MF, LeDoux MS, Reiter LT, Heck DH. Comprehensive motor testing in Fmr1-KO mice exposes temporal defects in oromotor coordination. Behav Neurosci. 2011 Dec;125(6):962-9. Epub 2011 Oct 17. PubMed PMID: 22004265.
• Jerome J, Foehring RC, Armstrong WE, Spain WJ, Heck DH. Parallel optical control of spatiotemporal neuronal spike activity using high-speed digital light processing. Front Syst Neurosci. 2011;5:70. Epub 2011 Aug 25. PubMed PMID: 21904526; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3161245.
• Roy S, Bryant JL, Cao Y, Heck DH. High-precision, three-dimensional tracking of mouse whisker movements with optical motion capture technology. Front Behav Neurosci. 2011;5:27. Epub 2011 Jun 8. PubMed PMID: 21713124; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3113147.

View more references (pubmed link)