
Thomas J O'dell
Assoc Director, Brain Research Institute, Brain Research Institute, University of California Los Angeles
Professor, Physiology, University of California Los Angeles
CHS
Los Angeles, CA 90095 NPI
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Lab Number:
310-794-6626
Affiliations
Research Interests
Biography
Synaptic and molecular mechanisms in learning and memory formation My lab is currently investigating the synaptic and molecular mechanisms involved in learning and memory formation in the mammalian central nervous system. Electrophysiological techniques are used to study synaptic transmission in a variety of in vitro preparations but most work concerns the mechanisms responsible for long-lasting changes in synaptic transmission that occur in the hippocampus, a region of the brain known to have an important role in learning and memory. In our experiments we use electrophysiological, pharmacological, and molecular genetic (transgenic mice) approaches to decipher the molecular components of the biochemical pathways responsible for memory formation in the mammalian brain and eventually hope to understand how alterations in these pathways may contribute to the memory impairment that occurs in pathological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease or even as a result of normal aging.
Publications
- O'Dell TJ. Behavioral Timescale Cooperativity and Competitive Synaptic Interactions Regulate the Induction of Complex Spike Burst-Dependent Long-Term Potentiation.. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2022.