Neuropathophysioloy, Translational Neuroscience, Neuromodulation, Neuronal Semiotics

We use electrophysiological recordings, computational neuroscience and neuronal information theory to decipher the symbols that brain cells use to interpret the world, retain and retrieve memories, process information, and command coordinated muscle activity. Through those techniques and clinical research, we learn how diseases and disorders of the nervous system impair the generation, storage, transmission and interpretation of those physiologically meaningful symbols. Coupling that knowledge with computational modeling and electrical engineering we aim to improve existing neuromodulatory therapies, and devise novel neural engineering interventions to enhance the quality of life.

Specific lines of research include:
1.Quantifying how patterns of neuronal activity in the basal ganglia relate to whole-organism functions (e.g. procedural learning and motor control), and how the development of pathological neuronal activity in persons with Parkinson's disease induces motor symptoms.
2.Detailing how deep brain stimulation modifies pathological activity in the stimulated tissue, learning why those modifications alleviate motor symptoms, and designing novel neuromodulatory therapies to treat movement disorders.
3.Understanding how the inputs that a neuron receives combine to alter the immediate response and long-term behavior of that neuron, and applying that knowledge to promote neuronal regeneration and repair connectivity in damaged neurological tissue.

Broicher T, Malerba P, Dorval AD, Borisyuk A, Fernandez FR, White JA, Spike phase locking in CA1 pyramidal neurons depends on background conductance and firing rate. J Neurosci 2012 Oct 10;32(41):14374-88

Dorval AD, Kuncel AM, Birdno MJ, Turner DA, Grill WM, Deep brain stimulation alleviates parkinsonian bradykinesia by regularizing pallidal activity. J Neurophysiol 2010 Aug;104(2):911-21

Dorval AD, Panjwani N, Qi RY, Grill WM, Deep brain stimulation that abolishes Parkinsonian activity in basal ganglia improves thalamic relay fidelity in a computational circuit. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2009;2009():4230-3

Dorval AD, Russo GS, Hashimoto T, Xu W, Grill WM, Vitek JL, Deep brain stimulation reduces neuronal entropy in the MPTP-primate model of Parkinson's disease. J Neurophysiol 2008 Nov;100(5):2807-18

Dorval AD, Probability distributions of the logarithm of inter-spike intervals yield accurate entropy estimates from small datasets. J Neurosci Methods 2008 Aug 15;173(1):129-39

Birdno MJ, Kuncel AM, Dorval AD, Turner DA, Grill WM, Tremor varies as a function of the temporal regularity of deep brain stimulation. Neuroreport 2008 Mar 26;19(5):599-602

Haas JS, Dorval AD 2nd, White JA, Contributions of Ih to feature selectivity in layer II stellate cells of the entorhinal cortex. J Comput Neurosci 2007 Apr;22(2):161-71

Dorval AD, The rhythmic consequences of ion channel stochasticity. Neuroscientist 2006 Oct;12(5):442-8

Dorval AD, White JA, Synaptic input statistics tune the variability and reproducibility of neuronal responses. Chaos 2006 Jun;16(2):026105

Dorval AD Jr, White JA, Channel noise is essential for perithreshold oscillations in entorhinal stellate neurons. J Neurosci 2005 Oct 26;25(43):10025-8

Netoff TI, Banks MI, Dorval AD, Acker CD, Haas JS, Kopell N, White JA, Synchronization in hybrid neuronal networks of the hippocampal formation. J Neurophysiol 2005 Mar;93(3):1197-208

Dorval AD, Christini DJ, White JA, Real-Time linux dynamic clamp: a fast and flexible way to construct virtual ion channels in living cells. Ann Biomed Eng 2001 Oct;29(10):897-907