JOsh Puhl Entering Class - 2004 E-mail: puhlx009@umn.edu

Undergraduate Institution and Major/Degree:

Major Advisor(s):

Research Description:

One of my principle goals as a neuroscientist is to understand how the activities of neural networks give rise to behaviors.  I find the notion of behaviors being elicited through the coordinated firing of networks of nerve cells fascinating. It was this idea that ultimately lead me to pursue studying neuroscience. Since matriculating into the graduate program in neuroscience, my fascinations have grown both in breadth and depth.

My graduate studies focus on learning how locomotor neural networks function.  More specifically, I want to learn about the circuitry of locomotor pattern generating networks and how they give rise to dynamic locomotor behaviors.  The model system that I use for these studies is the European medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis .  The leech is an almost ideal system for studying locomotion for several reasons: 1) The entire CNS is comprised of about 10,000 neurons making it a vastly simpler system compared to the CNS of the vertebrates, 2) Locomotor behaviors of the leech are easily separable and quantifiable and 3) The cells of the CNS are easily accessible, large in size (relative to cells of the CNS of the vertebrates) and most importantly uniquely identifiable. 

The major experimental trajectories for my thesis research program include:

The primary experimental techniques that I employ are electrophysiology (intracellular and extracellular), immunocytochemistry, behavioral monitoring, nearly-intact preparations and voltage-sensitive fluorescent dye imaging.

Lab Rotations:

Conferences Attended and Presentations: