Timothy J. Ebner, MD, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Neuroscience; Chairperson, Department of Neuroscience

E-MAIL: [email protected]

Research Interests:

Our laboratory is trying to understand how single neurons and populations of neurons encode the information needed to plan and execute limb movements. Our goal is to decipher how the brain represents different movement parameters and then uses this information to control movements. We are investigating both kinematic and dynamic movement parameters, recording the activity of neurons in the cerebellum in primates during motor behaviors. A variety of movements are studied, including reaching to targets in space, tracking moving targets, the learning of new visuomotor relations, and hand movements. Using analytical and statistical techniques, we sort out how information about movement parameters is embedded in the neuronal discharge.

We are also interested in how information in the brain is represented spatially and temporally in populations of neurons. In the cerebellum we are using flavoprotein fluorescence and Ca 2+ dyes to visualize neural activity. We also use optogenetics to perturb the cerebellar circuit.  We are able to construct detailed spatial and temporal maps of the neuronal activity in the cerebellar cortex, investigating how the cerebellar circuit functions and how synaptic plasticity modifies circuit properties.  In addition, we are using these techniques to examine abnormalities in the cerebellar cortex in the spinocerebellar and episodic ataxias.


Selected Publications:

(For a comprehensive list of recent publications, refer to PubMed, a service provided by the National Library of Medicine.)

  • Nietz AK, Streng ML, Popa LS, Carter RE, Flaherty EB, Aronson JD, Ebner TJ. To be and not to be: wide-field Ca2+ imaging reveals neocortical functional segmentation combines stability and flexibility. Cereb Cortex. 2023 Feb 2:bhac523. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhac523.
  • Nietz AK, Popa LS, Streng ML, Carter RE, Kodandaramaiah SB, Ebner TJ. Wide-field calcium imaging of neuronal network dynamics in vivoBiology (Basel). 2022 Nov 1;11(11):1601.
  • Cramer SW, Haley SP, Popa LS, Carter RE, Scott E, Flaherty EB, Dominguez J, Aronson JD, Sabal L, Surinach D, Chen CC, Kodandaramaiah SB, Ebner TJ. Wide-field calcium imaging reveals widespread changes in cortical functional connectivity following mild traumatic brain injury in the mouse. Neurobiol Dis. 2022 Dec 4:105943.
  • Streng ML, Popa LS, Ebner TJ. Cerebellar Representations of Errors and Internal Models. Cerebellum. 2022 Oct;21(5):814-820. 
  • Donaldson,P.D, Navabi,Z.S., Carter,R.E., Fausner,S.M.L., Ganbari,L., Ebner,T.J., Swisher,S.L., Kodandaramaiah,S.B. Polymer skulls with integrated transparent electrode arrays for cortex-wide opto-electrophysiological recordings. bioRxiv, 2021.
  • Zick JL, Crowe DA, Blackman RK, Schultz K, Bergstrand DW, DeNicola AL, Carter RE, Ebner TJ, Lanier LM, Netoff TI, Chafee MV. Disparate insults relevant to schizophrenia converge on impaired spike synchrony and weaker synaptic interactions in prefrontal local circuits. Curr Biol. 2022 Jan 10;32(1):14-25.e4. 
  • West SL, Aronson JD, Popa LS, Feller KD, Carter RE, Chiesl WM, Gerhart ML, Shekhar AC, Ghanbari L, Kodandaramaiah SB, Ebner TJ. Wide-Field Calcium Imaging of Dynamic Cortical Networks during Locomotion. Cereb Cortex. 2022 Jun 7;32(12):2668-2687. 
  • Cramer SW, Carter RE, Aronson JD, Kodandaramaiah SB, Ebner TJ, Chen CC. Through the looking glass: A review of cranial window technology for optical access to the brain. J Neurosci Methods. 2021 Apr 15;354:109100. 
  • West SL, Aronson JD, Popa LS, Feller KD, Carter RE, Chiesl WM, Gerhart ML, Shekhar AC, Ghanbari L, Kodandaramaiah SB, Ebner TJ. Wide-field calcium imaging of dynamic cortical networks during locomotion. Cereb Cortex. 2021 Oct 23:bhab373.
  • Cramer SW, Carter RE, Aronson JD, Kodandaramaiah SB, Ebner TJ, Chen CC. Through the looking glass: A review of cranial window technology for optical access to the brain. J Neurosci Methods. 2021 Apr 15;354:109100.
  • Ghanbari L, Carter RE, Rynes ML, Dominguez J, Chen G, Naik A, Hu J, Sagar MAK, Haltom L, Mossazghi N, Gray MM, West SL, Eliceiri KW, Ebner TJ, Kodandaramaiah SB. Cortex-wide neural interfacing via transparent polymer skulls. Nat Commun. 2019 Apr 2;10(1):1500.
  • Popa LS, Ebner TJ. Cerebellum, predictions and errors. Front Cell Neurosci. 2019 Jan 15;12:524.
  • Popa LS, Streng ML, Ebner TJ. Purkinje cell representations of behavior: Diary of a busy neuron. Neuroscientist. 2019;25(3):241-257
  • Streng ML, Popa LS, Ebner TJ. Complex spike wars: a new hope. Cerebellum. 2018;17(6):735-746.
  • Streng ML, Popa LS, Ebner TJ. Modulation of sensory prediction error in Purkinje cells during visual feedback manipulations. Nat Commun. 2018 Mar 15;9(1):1099.
  • Chen G, Carter RE, Cleary JD, Reid TS, Ranum LP, Swanson MS, Ebner TJ. Altered levels of the splicing factor muscleblind modifies cerebral cortical function in mouse models of myotonic dystrophy. Neurobiol Dis. 2018;112:35-48.
  • Hedges VL, Chen G, Yu L, Krentzel AA, Starrett JR, Zhu JN, Suntharalingam P, Remage-Healey L, Wang JJ, Ebner TJ, Mermelstein PG. Local estrogen synthesis regulates parallel fiber-Purkinje cell neurotransmission within the cerebellar cortex. Endocrinology. 2018;159(3):1328-1338.
  • Chen G, Carter RE, Cleary JD, Reid TS, Ranum LP, Swanson MS, Ebner TJ. Altered levels of the splicing factor muscleblind modifies cerebral cortical function in mouse models of myotonic dystrophy. Neurobiol Dis. 2018;112:35-48.
  • Streng ML, Popa LS, Ebner TJ. Climbing fibers predict movement kinematics and performance errors. J Neurophysiol. 2017;118:1888-1902
  • Popa LS, Streng ML, Ebner TJ. Long-term predictive and feedback encoding of motor signals in the simple spike discharge of Purkinje cells. eNeuro. 2017 Apr;4(2). pii: ENEURO.0036-17.2017.
  • Streng ML, Popa LS, Ebner TJ. Climbing fibers control Purkinje cell representations of behavior. J Neurosci. 2017;37(8):1997-2009.
  • Lang EJ, Apps R, Bengtsson F, Cerminara NL, De Zeeuw CI, Ebner TJ, Heck DH, Jaeger D, Jörntell H, Kawato M, Otis TS, Ozyildirim O, Popa LS, Reeves AM, Schweighofer N, Sugihara I, Xiao J. The roles of the olivocerebellar pathway in motor learning and motor control. A consensus paper. Cerebellum. 2017;16(1):230-252.
  • Popa LS, Streng ML, Hewitt AL, Ebner TJ. The errors of our ways: Understanding error representations in cerebellar-dependent motor learning. Cerebellum. 2016;15:93-103.
  • Cramer SW, Popa LS, Carter RE, Chen G, Ebner TJ. Abnormal excitability and episodic low-frequency oscillations in the cerebral cortex of the tottering mouse. J Neurosci. 2015;35:5664-79.
  • Popa LS, Hewitt AL, Ebner TJ. The cerebellum for jocks and nerds alike. Front Syst Neurosci. 2014 Jun 17;8:113.
  • Hewitt AL, Popa LS, Ebner TJ. Changes in Purkinje cell simple spike encoding of reach kinematics during adaption to a mechanical perturbation. J Neurosci. 2015;35:1106-24.
  • Prosise JF, Hendrix CM, Ebner TJ. Joint angles and angular velocities and relevance of eigenvectors during prehension in the monkey. Exp Brain Res. 2015;233:339-50.
  • Armbrust KR, Wang X, Hathorn TJ, Cramer SW, Chen G, Zu T, Kangas T, Zink AN, Öz G, Ebner TJ, Ranum LP. Mutant β-III spectrin causes mGluR1α mislocalization and functional deficits in a mouse model of spinocerebellar ataxia type 5. J Neurosci. 2014;34:9891-904.

Current Graduate Students:

Sarah West (Neuroscience, University of Minnesota)

Jodi Prosise (Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota).

Former Graduate Students:

Martha Streng (Ph.D. 2017; Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Samuel Cramer (Ph.D. 2014, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Angela Hewitt (Ph.D. 2013, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Justin Barnes (Ph.D. 2011, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Kenneth Reinert (Ph.D. 2006, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Robert L. Dunbar (Ph.D. M.A., 2002, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Charles Hanson (Ph.D. 2001, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Jose Gomez (Ph.D. 2000, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Sharad J. Shanbhag (Ph.D. 1999, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Stephen Helms Tillery (Ph.D. 1994, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Catherine Ojakangas (Ph.D. 1992, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Picture of Timothy Ebner