Principal Investigator Martha Constantine-Paton
The human brain contains over 100 billion neurons, each connecting to thousands of other neurons in a network of unimaginable complexity. Almost all of our neurons are formed before or soon after birth, and the development of the brain during childhood is due largely to changes in their interconnections, known as synapses. These changes are driven by experience, through patterns of electrical activity in the brain that strengthen the desirable connections while weakening or removing those that are unwanted.
Martha Constantine-Paton wants to understand how this process works at the level of individual neurons and their molecular components. By studying the visual system of developing animals, she has shown that a class of molecules known as NMDA receptors plays an essential role in setting the strength of synaptic connections in response to visual experience. Without these NMDA receptors, the visual system fails to undergo the normal tuning process that allows us to perceive the visual world in sharp detail. Constantine-Paton is now working to understand how exactly NMDA receptors controls this process.