Indira M Raman
Northwestern University, IL·Neuroscience
Smooth movement depends on the brain predicting what the body will feel and correcting errors as they happen. The cerebellum, a structure at the back of the brain, does this job and also learns new movement patterns over time.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Physiology
Biophysics
- Topics
cerebellum
cerebellar nuclei
CbN
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2028
What they work on
- Determine how the synchrony of inhibitory input from many Purkinje neurons shapes the firing of cerebellar nuclei neurons, using in vitro synaptic studies in mice and larval zebrafish.
- Record Purkinje and cerebellar nuclei cell firing in living mice and zebrafish during predictable movements and unexpected sensory input, to learn how the circuit flags deviations from predictions.
- Track how cerebellar firing changes during motor learning such as habituation and associative conditioning, and relate it to short- and long-term plasticity at excitatory and inhibitory synapses.
- Identify which aspects of signaling from Purkinje neurons to cerebellar nuclei neurons change under pathological conditions.
More about the research
When it fails, people can develop movement disorders such as ataxia and dystonia, and cerebellar problems have also been linked to dyslexia and autism. A central question is how the cerebellum's output neurons combine incoming signals to detect when something unexpected happens and to send out a corrective command.
Why it matters
Cerebellar dysfunction can contribute to ataxia, dystonia, dyslexia and autism spectrum disorders. By explaining how Purkinje-to-cerebellar-nuclei signaling normally produces corrective movement commands, and how it changes under pathological conditions, this work could help clarify what goes wrong in these disorders and inform future approaches to them.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Stephanie Rudolph
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY·Neuroscience
Determine the types and distribution of oxytocin-binding receptors across the mouse cerebellar cortex, and test how oxytocin affects neuron activity and the transmission of signals between neurons.
Vikram Shakkottai
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Neuroscience
Define how membrane excitability, meaning how easily a neuron fires, relates to inferior olive degeneration in SCA1 knockin mice. Test whether restoring normal excitability prevents the degeneration.
Mesut Sahin
New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJ·Biomedical Engineering
Develop focused ultrasound protocols that directly stimulate the deep cerebellar nuclei, the cerebellum's output centers, without surgery, and identify settings that selectively activate specific neuron types.
The school
Northwestern University: 71 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 536 research doctorates a year.
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