My laboratory studies the mechanisms by which voltage-gated potassium channels regulate neuronal excitability. The ability of a neuron to adapt its own excitability is called “intrinsic plasticity” and is a complementary process to ”synaptic plasticity”, about which we know so much more. We have focused our studies in the brainstem auditory pathway because of its clear physiological role in integrating sound information from both ears for the purpose of sound localization. This function requires extreme precision in action potential firing and coincidence detection. The adaptations include a giant synapse (Calyx of Held), fast gating glutamate receptors, along with the expression and precise localization of potassium channel subunits in the neuronal plasma membrane. We exploit this system to explore the physiological relevance of Kv1, Kv2 and Kv3 potassium channel families.  I will tell you about their localization and physiological roles within the context of auditory processing and describe our preliminary work on synaptic modulation of neuronal excitability.

参考文献
The sound of silence: ionic mechanisms encoding sound termination (2011)  Kopp-Scheinpflug C, Tozer AJ, Robinson SW, Tempel BL, Hennig MH, Forsythe ID.  Neuron 71: 911-25.
Protection from noise-induced hearing loss by Kv2.2 potassium currents in the central medial olivocochlear system (2013)  Tong H,,,, Forsythe ID.  J Neurosci 33: 9113-21.
Nitric oxide selectively suppresses IH currents mediated by HCN1-containing channels (2015) Kopp-Scheinpflug C, Pigott BM, Forsythe ID.  J Physiol 593: 1685-700.