Associate Professor

Areas of Research  

The research of Jorge Golowasch focuses mainly on the cellular and network mechanisms of long-term regulation of electrical activity in a simple model neural network, the pyloric network of the stomatogastric ganglion of crustaceans. An undesirable consequence of plasticity is the potential instability of the system. In the nervous system the activity of neurons and neural networks remains quite stable over very long periods of time conductances, however, also express plasticity.  How this plasticity contributes to stability, however, is a question largely unexplored.  Using both electrophysiological and computational tools, he and his students in the laboratory study mechanisms of neuronal plasticity and homeostasis of the ionic currents that determine the excitability and electric activity of neurons and simple neural networks.  He is also interested in how neurons interact to form rhythmic pattern generating networks.

 Luther, J.A., Robie, A.A., Yarotsky, J., Reina, Ch., Marder, E. & Golowasch, J. (2003). "Episodic Bouts of Activity Accompany Recovery of Rhythmic Output by a Neuromodulator and Activity-Deprived Adult Neural Network," J. Neurophysiol., 90: 2720-2730.

Golowasch, J., Goldman, M.S., L.F. Abbott. & E. Marder (2002). "Failure of averaging in the construction of conductance-based neuron models," J. Neurophysiology. 87: 1129-1131.

Goldman, M.S., Golowasch, J, Marder, E. & L.F. Abbott. (2001). "Global structure, robustness, and modulation of neuronal models," J. Neuroscience., 21(14): 5229-5238.

Goldman, M.S., J. Golowasch, L.F. Abbott. & E. Marder (2000). "Dependence of firing pattern on intrinsic ionic conductances: sensitive and insensitive combinations," Neurocomputing, 32-33:141-146.

Swensen, A.M., Golowasch, J., Christie, A.E., Coleman, M.J., Nusbaum, M.P. & Marder, E. (2000). "GABA and responses to GABA in the stomatogastric ganglion of the crab Cancer borealis," J. Exp Biol., 203(14): 2075-2092.