Ole Paulsen MD PhD
Research Areas
Medical Sciences Division Themes
- Neuroscience
- Ion Channels and Transporters
Neuroscience Sub-Themes
Neuroscience Keywords
- Cholinergic
- Hippocampus
- Interneurons
- Ion Channels
- Learning and Memory
- Neural Networks
- Synaptic Plasticity
- Working Memory
Techniques and Equipment
Group Members
- Dr Mariana Vargas-Caballero, Wellcome Trust International Research Fellow
- Dr Antonio Rodriguez-Moreno, Senior Postdoctoral Fellow (Marie Curie Fellow)
- Dr Elizabeth Tunbridge, Postdoctoral Fellow (MRC)
- Dr Jeehyun Kwag, Postdoctoral Fellow (BBSRC)
- Abhishek Banerjee, D.Phil. student (Felix Scholar)
- Barty Pleydell-Bouverie, D.Phil. student (Wellcome Trust Neuroscience)
- Elizabeth Mayne, D.Phil. student (Rhodes Scholar / NIH)
- Louisa Lyon, D.Phil. student (MRC)
- Michael Craig, D.Phil. student (Wellcome Trust Oxion)
- Michael Kohl, D.Phil. student (Wellcome Trust Oxion)
- Tommas Ellender, D.Phil. student (Wellcome Trust Oxion)
- Catrin Radcliffe, D.Phil student
- Inga Deakin, D.Phil student (Wellcome Trust Neuroscience)
Former Group Members
- Dr Ed Mann, Istvan Mody Lab, UCLA, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
- Dr Iris Oren, Kullmann Lab, ION, UCL, London, U.K.
- Dr Rhiannon Meredith, Mansvelder Lab, VUMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Dr Bobby Kasthuri, Lichtman Lab, Harvard, Boston, U.S.A.
- Dr Harris Alexopoulus, Vincent Lab, Oxford, U.K.
Collaborators
- Professor Nick Rawlins, Department of Experimental Psychology
- Professor Zoltan Molnar, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics
- Professor Angela Vincent, Institute of Molecular Medicine
- Dr Jozsef Csicsvari, MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit
- Dr Louise Upton, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics
- Professor Edvard Moser, Centre for the Biology of Memory, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
- Professor Peter Dayan, The Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL, U.K.
- Professor Arjen Brussaard and Dr Huibert Mansvelder, Centre for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Professor Tamas Freund and Dr Norbert Hajos, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Budapest, Hungary
- Professor Terence Sejnowski, The Salk Institute and UCSD, San Diego, U.S.A.
| Web | Personal Website |
|---|---|
| Department | Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics |
| College | Keble College |
Dr Ole Paulsen
Our group is interested in the cellular basis of information processing in the mammalian brain. Our ambition is to elucidate the neural code for memory, i.e. how information is encoded, stored and retrieved in neuronal networks of the brain. To that end, we study the rules of synaptic plasticity at the cellular and network levels during physiologically relevant network activity.
Our objectives are:
1. To understand the cellular basis for generation and propagation of network oscillations in the hippocampus and thalamocortical networks.
2. To elucidate the rules for induction of synaptic plasticity during such network oscillations during development and in the adult.
3. To gain insight into how information can be stored and retrieved as changes of synaptic weights in those network.
Biography
Ole Paulsen gained a medical degree and a doctorate from the University of Oslo, Norway, before taking up a Departmental Lecturership in the Department of Pharmacology, Oxford, in 1994. During the years 1996-99, he was also a Junior Research Fellow at Wadham College. He was appointed University Lecturer in the University Laboratory of Physiology in 2000, associated with a Fellowship at Keble College.
Ole Paulsen's research interests are in cellular mechanisms of neural coding. In particular his research has focussed on understanding the relation between neuronal oscillations and synaptic plasticity in cortical circuits of the mammalian brain. His work has uncovered an important role for GABAergic interneurons in rhythmic network activity, and a role for specific spike patterns in synaptic plasticity. These results are important for the understanding of memory mechanisms in the brain. Future work will include the use of advanced imaging techniques to simultaneously monitor the activity of multiple neurons during network activity.
Selected Publications
- Mann Edward O and Paulsen Ole (2007) Role of GABAergic inhibition in hippocampal network oscillations. Trends Neurosci, 30(7):343-9.
- McLelland Douglas and Paulsen Ole (2007) Cortical songs revisited: a lesson in statistics. Neuron, 53(3):319-21.
- Mann Edward O and Paulsen Ole (2006) Keeping inhibition timely. Neuron, 49(1):8-9.
- Oren Iris, Mann Edward O, Paulsen Ole, and Hajos Norbert (2006) Synaptic currents in anatomically identified CA3 neurons during hippocampal gamma oscillations in vitro. J Neurosci, 26(39):9923-34.
- Paulsen Ole and Sejnowski Terrence J (2006) From invertebrate olfaction to human cognition: emerging computational functions of synchronized oscillatory activity. J Neurosci, 26(6):1661-2.
- Sejnowski Terrence J and Paulsen Ole (2006) Network oscillations: emerging computational principles. J Neurosci, 26(6):1673-6.
- Lengyel Mate, Kwag Jeehyun, Paulsen Ole, and Dayan Peter (2005) Matching storage and recall: hippocampal spike timing-dependent plasticity and phase response curves. Nat Neurosci, 8(12):1677-83.
- Mann Edward O, Radcliffe Catrin A, and Paulsen Ole (2005) Hippocampal gamma-frequency oscillations: from interneurones to pyramidal cells, and back. J Physiol, 562(Pt 1):55-63.
- Mann Edward O, Suckling Jillian M, Hajos Norbert, Greenfield Susan A, and Paulsen Ole (2005) Perisomatic feedback inhibition underlies cholinergically induced fast network oscillations in the rat hippocampus in vitro. Neuron, 45(1):105-17.
- Mierau Susanna B, Meredith Rhiannon M, Upton A L, and Paulsen Ole (2004) Dissociation of experience-dependent and -independent changes in excitatory synaptic transmission during development of barrel cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 101(43):15518-23.
