Katrina MacLeod, Ph.D

Research Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program (NACS)
University of Maryland, College Park  

Research
     We are interested in fundamental questions about the neural underpinnings of sensory perception. How do we interpret a complex sound waveform as the auditory world around us?  All information about an auditory scene is encoded in the auditory nerve, which projects to the cochlear nuclei in the brainstem.   At this level, different types of information are extracted by different neural elements by using synaptic and cellular specializations that decode the nerve inputs.  Our group is interested in how timing and intensity cues are extracted at the auditory nerve to cochlear nucleus synapse and how short-term synaptic plasticity might contribute to this process.  Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings are made from acute slices of the chick auditory brainstem, a model in vitro system for the study of hearing.  Physiological techniques are combined with quantitive modeling of synaptic plasticity and biophysical membrane properties in collaboration with the Horiuchi lab (Dept ECE and Institute for Systems Research, UMCP) and the Simon lab (Depts of ECE and Biol., UMCP). Finally, weare comparing our in vitro response to electrical stimulation with known effects during cochlear implant stimulation in collaboration with the Chatterjee lab (Hearing and Speech Sci, UMCP).  (more)

Opportunities: We anticipate openings for lab technician and graduate student positions in 2010. Please contact me via email with attached CV for more information.

Education

• MacLeod, K.M., Horiuchi, T. and Carr, C.E. (2007)  A role for short-term facilitation and depression in the processing of intensity information in the auditory brainstem.  J Neurophysiology  97: 2863-2974  

• MacLeod, K.M., Soares, D., Simon, J.Z. and Carr, C.E. (2006) Interaural timing difference circuits in the auditory brainstem of the emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae).  J. Comp. Neurol. 495: 185-201   pdf

• MacLeod, K.M. and Carr, C.E. (2005) Synaptic properties in the cochlear nucleus angularis of the chick. J Neurophysiology, 93:2520-2529 doi:10.1152/jn.00898.2004.   pdf

• Watt,A.J., van Rossum, M.C.W., MacLeod, K.M., Nelson, S.B., and Turrigiano,G.G. (2000) Activity co-regulates quantal AMPA and NMDA currents at neocortical synapses.Neuron 26:659-670. 
  

• MacLeod, K., Bäcker, A., and Laurent, G. (1998) Who reads temporal information contained across synchronized and oscillatory spike trains? Nature 395 :693-698.   pdf

• MacLeod, K., and Laurent, G. (1996) Distinct mechanisms for synchronization and temporal patterning of odor-encoding cell assemblies.Science 274: 976-979.

Last updated 1/25/2010

---