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The functional organization of the auditory brain engenders us with the fundamental capacity to find meaning in sound, which allows us to communicate with one another and to interact with the external world. My research focuses on how auditory brain circuits become organized in development and how this organization becomes disturbed in disorders of hearing such as hearing loss, hyperacusis and tinnitus. I combine electrophysiological and optical techniques to delineate the organization and strength of excitatory and inhibitory neural circuits that support hearing. I am currently studying changes in the local neural circuits of the auditory midbrain in a mouse model of phantom auditory perception (tinnitus).
Publications:
Sturm, J, J., Nguyen, T., Kandler, K. (2014). Developmental Refinement of Intrinsic Connections in the Mouse Inferior Colliculus. Journal of Neuroscience, 34, 15032-15046