Linda
Hermer-Vazquez 
Phone:
(352) 392-0601, ext. 335 (office) and 377 (lab)
Office: Room 322 Psychology Building
E-mail: lindahv@ufl.edu
Assistant Professor, Behavioral
Neuroscience Program
Ph.D. 1997, Biopsychology and Cognitive
Systems neuroscience of
learning, memory, and choice-making;
signal analytical techniques such as partial directed coherence to study
information flow across distributed neural circuits; neurophysiology and
behavior in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease
RESEARCH
What are the neuronal circuit dynamics at both large, distributed scales and
the local circuit scales underlying animals’ integration of sensory,
motivational and motor neural data streams into unified behavioral
outputs? We believe that the potential for answering this question
depends on several critical assumptions and methods, including: (1) recording
the activity of large populations of neurons in cortical and subcortical brain
regions simultaneously, to gain insight into task-related neural activity at
fine to coarse spatial and temporal scales; (2) recording both the input and
ongoing processing of neuronal networks, as viewed through local field
potentials, and viewing action potentials as providing low-noise, local or
long-distance output; (3) use of brain site-specific cannulation as a method to
decompose task-related circuits in order to mechanistically study how those
circuits function; (4) performing well-controlled and validated behavioral
tasks to achieve precise correlations between task phases and their neural
correlates; and (5) assuming nonstationarity of neural information processing,
i.e. that neural statistics are constantly changing along with the animal’s
behavioral state, and therefore, analytical methods designed for nonstationary
time series must be used. We have been using this combination of
assumptions and techniques to study how rodents learn and execute
olfactory-driven, voluntary movement tasks. Thus far we have found that a
unique set of neural modulations seen simultaneously in all task-related,
recorded areas, including the suppression of some task-related neural
subpopulations, and transient, high-frequency, coherent oscillations in dendritic
currents, appears to underlie the initiation of olfactory-driven movement.
Linda’s Current Projects as of March 2007
1. How does information flow through olfactory, prefrontal (decision-making) and motor areas as rats perform olfactory driven, choice-making tasks? Furthermore, how do the dendritic trees at the input sites of these brain regions process incoming and intrinsic information, and what is the spike output from those areas that is transmitted to other task-related brain areas?
2. How are new decision-making tasks learned by prefrontal and motor cortical systems, and once those tasks have become well-learned, is their execution offloaded to cerebellar-rubrospinal circuitry, as current evidence suggests? If so, how?
3. Developing more neurobiologically realistic models of neural information processing.
4. Examining
whether the earliest, putatively solely olfactory manifestations in Alzheimer’s
Disease play a role in non-olfactory cognitive decline, as some of our models
suggest. This project is a behavioral
and biophysical investigation of that strong hypothesis.
FALL 2008
COURSES
1.
Current Controversies in Neuroscience (grad
and undergrad sections)
2.
Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience
(grad and undergrad sections)
PREVIOUSLY
TAUGHT COURSES (TO BE TAUGHT AGAIN)
1.
Fast-track Behavioral Neuroscience
2.
Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience
3.
Multielectrode Recording: Techniques and Insights
4.
Systems Neuroscience: Major Issues
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
L. Hermer-Vazquez (2008):
Tracing ‘driver’ versus ‘modulator’ information flow throughout large-scale,
task-related neural circuitry. Journal of Combinatorial Optimization
15(3): 242-256.
L. Hermer-Vazquez (2007): Toward a unified theory of the actions of dopamine in the mammalian brain. Cell Science, e-pub January 24th, 2007.
R. Hermer-Vazquez*, L.
Hermer-Vazquez*,
* co-first authors