Berlin neuroscientist excellent again

A European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant worth almost one and a half million euros over the next five years has been awarded to Dr. James Poulet of the Cluster of Excellence NeuroCure at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

Dr. Poulet, is leading a liason group of the Charité and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, played a key role in detecting a phenomenon researchers generally call “corollary discharge”. It prevents crickets from deafening themselves while generating extremely loud mating songs and that is also why it is impossible to tickle oneself. Poulet is now interested in studying changes in patterns of neuronal activity or brain states. This phenomenon was first recorded in 1929 in the awake human brain. Today recordings about these changes exist from mouse to man.

It is thought that changes in brain state are fundamental to normal brain function and neuronal computation. “However, very little is known about the underlying neuronal mechanisms that generate these changes or their precise impact on neuronal processing and behaviour”, Dr. Poulet explains.

In his new project he and his group wants to record the activity of neurons in the awake, behaving mouse to investigate the network and cellular mechanisms involved in generating brain state, using high resolution electrophysiology, neural imaging, molecular and behavioural techniques.

In previous work he had already characterized changes in brain state in the mouse during whisker movements, which he will now investigate further. With his research he hopes to be able to open new perspectives in the treatment of neurological diseases such as stroke or epilepsy.

For further information: http://erc.europa.eu/

Contact:
Dr. James Poulet
Cluster of Excellence NeuroCure
Charitéplatz 1
D-10117 Berlin

Phone: +49 (0)30 450 528077
Email: james.poulet@charite.de
Web: www.neurocure.de