The recovery paper has come out

Finally, my "recovery paper" came out:

Recruitment of polysynaptic connections underlies functional recovery of a neural circuit after lesion.

Akira Sakurai, Arianna N. Tamvacakis, Paul S. Katz

DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0056-16.2016

This paper shows that, when a neural circuit failed by losing one of its synapses within, functional recovery can occur through reorganization of the remaining neural circuitry. We show that a molluscan neural circuit recruits additional neurons in response to a lesion. The extent of recruitment predicts the extent of behavioral recovery. 

Even in a well-defined (sort of) invertebrate neural circuit, there are indirect, polysynaptic pathways that provide compensatory function or flexibility to the circuit. Such individual variability appears to be hidden under normal conditions but becomes relevant when challenged by neural injury.

This paper is a sequel of two preceding papers:

Functional Recovery after Lesion of a Central Pattern Generator (2009)

Hidden synaptic differences in a neural circuit underlie differential behavioral susceptibility to a neural injury (2014)

The recovery paper

My latest paper will appear in the Journal of Neuroscience.
October 21, 2009 | Volume 29 | Number 42 |

They will introduce my paper in "This Week in The Journal"
Development/Plasticity/Repair - "Nerve Transection Induces Circuit Reorganization in Tritonia"

The article title is:
"Functional Recovery after Lesion of a Central Pattern Generator"
by Akira Sakurai and Paul S. Katz

In this paper, we found that severing a set of connections between some CPG neurons impaired motor pattern production but that the system spontaneously recovered over the course of a few hours to a day. Furthermore, we observed corresponding changes in synaptic strength that can account for the functional recovery.

Giving a talk

I gave a talk yesterday. I think it went very well. Paul seemed happy with it. I received many good comments.

I am usually not good at giving a speech. I often get choked even when I present my data in our weekly lab meeting. This is not because of English. I am not good at giving a speech even in Japanese.

However, sometimes I feel very comfortable standing on a big stage. This happened yesterday. I didn't want to finish my talk. I felt like to talk about my stuff forever. I don't know why. I even remember that a mosquito was flying in front of the screen. I kinda enjoyed watching it while talking about heterosynaptic plasticity. I wish this happens every time I give a talk.

My latest paper published

My paper, "State-, Timing-, and Pattern-Dependent Neuromodulation of Synaptic Strength by a Serotonergic Interneuron" with Paul Katz is out in the Journal of Neuroscience.

By studying sea slug's brain, we described that the strength of synaptic transmission is controled by its own activity level and by a neuromodulatory input. These two types of synaptic plasticity interact with each other to produce complex and dynamic changes in the strength of the synapse. Such changes may play important roles in configuration of neural circuit to produce specific motor outputs.

Although the development of techniques using brain slice preparations had made a great advance in our knowledge of synaptic plasticity, I am hoping that this paper shows that researches in invertebrate neuroscience are still front runners in the field of synaptic plasticity in motor control and behavior.