Name Eve Marder | ||
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Education Brandeis University, University of California, San Diego Similar People Cornelia Bargmann, Gina G Turrigiano, Terry Sejnowski, David W Tank, Karl Deisseroth | ||
Eve marder brandeis university part 1 introduction to central pattern generators
Eve Marder (born May 30, 1948 in New York City) is an American neuroscientist known for her work on neural circuits in the crustacean stomatogastric nervous system (STNS). She discovered that circuits are not “hard-wired” to produce a single output or behavior, but can be reconfigured by neuromodulators to produce many outputs and behaviors while still maintaining the integrity of the circuit. Her work revolutionized the way scientists view the structure and function of neural circuits in the brain, and the general principles that resulted from her work are thought to be generally applicable to humans.
Contents
- Eve marder brandeis university part 1 introduction to central pattern generators
- Eve marder brandeis university part 2 neuromodulation
- Awards
- References
Her work on the 30 neurons that comprise the lobster stomatogastric ganglion (STG) produced many notable findings. She found that circuits can be modulated by many neuromodulators, which act on the level of populations of neurons, unlike some neurotransmitters, which can only affect specific target neurons. She pioneered work on plasticity and homeostasis, revealing more about how the brain can change dramatically during learning and development yet remain structurally stable. Her recent work examining network variability among healthy individuals shows that a variety of network parameters can produce the same behavioral outcome, challenging a long-standing goal in theoretical neuroscience to model 'ideal' neurons and neural circuits.
Along with Larry Abbott, she also developed the dynamic clamp method, which enables an experimenter to induce mathematically modeled conductances into living neurons to view the output of theoretical circuits.
She received her B.A. at Brandeis University and Ph.D. at University of California, San Diego. Her doctoral work on the role of acetylcholine in the lobster STG led to a single-author Nature paper. She completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Oregon in Eugene and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. She is currently the Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of Neuroscience at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, where, in 1990, she established one of the very first undergraduate neuroscience programs in the United States.
She is currently an elected counselor for the National Academy of Science, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the United States National Academy of Sciences, serves on the National Institutes of Health working group for the BRAIN Initiative, and is a former president of the Society for Neuroscience. She is also a Deputy Editor at eLife, and, due to her early interest in politics, she often writes about science, politics, and society.
