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.
Therefore in his new project Dr. Poulet 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 and 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.
During his PhD the neuroscientist played a key role in detecting a phenomenon researchers call "corollary discharge". It prevents crickets from deafening themselves while generating extremely loud mating songs.
Furthermore, due to "corollary discharge" it is also impossible to tickle oneself. A corollary discharge is a signal in the brain that filters out the perception of sounds or touch generated by ones own behaviour.
Until the summer of 2009 James Poulet was a postdoc at -cole Poly-technique F-d-rale de Lausanne, Switzerland, where he succeeded in recording the intracellular activity of two nerve cells in the cerebral cortex of a conscious, behaving animal for the first time.
Dr. Poulet is originally from London, England. He studied biology at the University of Bristol, went on to graduate studies at the University of Cambridge (UK), where he received his PhD in 2002 and was a postdoc between 2002 and 2005.
Dr. Poy and Dr. Poulet are the second and third recipients of an ERC-grant at the MDC. In 2009, developmental biologist Dr. Francesca Spagnoli, received a one million ERC-grant. The ERC, established in 2007 by the European Commission, is funded through the 7th Research Framework Programme of the European Union.
Source: Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres