Sten Grillner, Ph.D.
- Address:
-
-
Department of Neuroscience
The Nobel Institute for Neurophysiology
Karolinska Institutet
Retzius väg 8
S-17177 Stockholm, Sweden
-
Department of Neuroscience
Research Focus
The forebrain control of goal-directed motion from ion channels to behavior
Our main aim is to unravel the cellular bases of motor behavior with a focus on the mechanisms underlying selection of behavior and the neural bases of in particular goal-directed locomotion and related steering, orienting and eye movements. The role of the basal ganglia, habenulae and tectum are in focus, while we have previously elucidated the brainstemspinal cord microcircuits underlying locomotion. This in turn requires a detailed knowledge of which nerve cells take part, how they talk to each other through synaptic interaction and an understanding of the intrinsic function of these networks.
The properties of different classes of nerve cells within the networks can vary greatly and are determined by the palette of ion channels expressed and also other gene products. Moreover, the properties of the different neurons can be modified by different monoaminergic, peptidergic and other G-protein-mediated receptor that act to fine-tune cellular or synaptic properties of the different network neurons.
The operation of the networks at a millisecond level is due to glutamate, glycine and GABA synaptic transmission.
Essentially, our research extends from ion channels and synapses to network mechanisms and behavior utilizing a multitude of techniques from patch clamp and cellular imaging to multi-scale modelling, tracing and immunohistochemical techniques and studies of behavior. We utilize preferentially the lamprey as model organism, which also has proved important from an evolutionary perspective.
We have shown that the circuits in the basal ganglia, habenulae, tectum and the brainstemspinal cord have been conserved throughout vertebrate phylogeny to a very unexpected degree.
The projects are supported by Karolinska Institutet, the Swedish Research Council (M and NT) and the EU.
Group Members
- Peter Wallén, associate professor
- Brita Robertson, laboratory coordinator
- Alexander Kozlov, research engineer
- Andreas Kardamakis, postdoc
- Lorenza Capantini, postdoc
- Arndt von Twickel, postdoc
- Carolina Thörn-Perez, postdoc
- Elham Jalalvand, PhD student
- Iris Sylvander, secretary
Selected Publications
Evolutionarily conserved differences in pallial and thalamic short-term synaptic plasticity in striatum.
J. Physiol. (2013) 591:859-74
Evolutionary conservation of the habenular nuclei and their circuitry controlling the dopamine and 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HT) systems.
Proceedings of the Nationall Acadademy of Sciences of the USA. (2012) 109: E164-173
Evolutionary conservation of the basal ganglia as a common vertebrate mechanism for action selection.
Current Biology. (2011) 21: 1081-1091
Simple cellular and network control principles governs complex patterns of motor behavior.
Proceedings of the Nationall Acadademy of Sciences of the USA. (2009) 106: 20027-20032
Measured motion: searching for simplicity in special locomotor networks.
Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. (2009) 19:572-86
