Project 2

Mapping connections of an efferent control system in the auditory nervous system

The auditory nervous system consists of ascending (afferent) components that carry information from the periphery to the higher centres, and descending (or efferent) pathways by which the brain exerts synaptic control over the flow of incoming information. The efferent system is thought to play a number of roles in auditory processing, but its detailed connectivity with afferent subsystems is poorly understood. In this project, we will label selected populations of afferent neurons using retrograde tracers injected into the brainstem of experimental animals and then anatomically map the synaptic connections that the efferent systems make with these labeled neurons by using anterograde tracers injected into the sites of origin of the efferent pathways