John P. Welsh, PhD
Academic Title: Professor, Neurology
Research Title: Principal Investigator
Research Center: Center for Integrative Brain Research
"When I was a kid, I was fascinated by animal behavior—by questions such as why does that dog do what it does, or why does one squirrel chase another squirrel? I realized there has to be something internal to the animal that determines, with millisecond precision, what it's going to be doing at a particular moment. As I grew up, I kept getting more interested in how the brain generates behavior, in the neurological processes underlying thinking and action and in trying to apply those insights to medical issues and neurological disorders."
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Other Publications
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Bonomo J, Welsh JP, Manthiram K, Swartz JRComparing the functional properties of the Hsp70 chaperones, DnaK and BiP.
20435400 Biophysical chemistry, 2010 June : 58-66 -
Welsh JP, Patel KG, Manthiram K, Swartz JRMultiply mutated Gaussia luciferases provide prolonged and intense bioluminescence.
19825431 Biochemical and biophysical research communications, 2009 Nov 27 : 563-8 -
Placantonakis DG, Bukovsky AA, Aicher SA, Kiem HP, Welsh JPContinuous electrical oscillations emerge from a coupled network: a study of the inferior olive using lentiviral knockdown of connexin36.
16687492 The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2006 May 10 : 5008-16 -
Welsh JP, Yamaguchi H, Zeng XH, Kojo M, Nakada Y, Takagi A, Sugimori M, Llinás RRNormal motor learning during pharmacological prevention of Purkinje cell long-term depression.
16278298 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2005 Nov 22 : 17166-71 -
Welsh JP, Ahn ES, Placantonakis DGIs autism due to brain desynchronization?
15749250 International journal of developmental neuroscience : the official journal of the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience, 2005 April : 253-63 -
Placantonakis DG, Bukovsky AA, Zeng XH, Kiem HP, Welsh JPFundamental role of inferior olive connexin 36 in muscle coherence during tremor.
15103021 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2004 May 4 : 7164-9 -
Johnson JL, Welsh JPIndependently movable multielectrode array to record multiple fast-spiking neurons in the cerebral cortex during cognition.
12695104 Methods (San Diego, Calif.), 2003 May : 64-78 -
Welsh JPFunctional significance of climbing-fiber synchrony: a population coding and behavioral analysis.
12582053 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2002 Dec. : 188-204 -
Placantonakis D, Cicirata F, Welsh JPA dominant negative mutation of neuronal connexin 36 that blocks intercellular permeability.
11834292 Brain research. Molecular brain research, 2002 Jan 31 : 15-28 -
Welsh JP, Yuen G, Placantonakis DG, Vu TQ, Haiss F, O'Hearn E, Molliver ME, Aicher SAWhy do Purkinje cells die so easily after global brain ischemia? Aldolase C, EAAT4, and the cerebellar contribution to posthypoxic myoclonus.
11968459 Advances in neurology, 2002 : 331-59 -
Welsh JP, Placantonakis DG, Warsetsky SI, Marquez RG, Bernstein L, Aicher SAThe serotonin hypothesis of myoclonus from the perspective of neuronal rhythmicity.
11968457 Advances in neurology, 2002 : 307-29 -
Llinás R, Lang EJ, Welsh JP, Makarenko VIA New Approach to the Analysis of Multidimensional Neuronal Activity: Markov Random Fields.
12662870 Neural networks : the official journal of the International Neural Network Society, 1997 July : 785-789
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Overview
- Research Description
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My research seeks to understand brain function in both health and disease and spans SIDS and autism. In SIDS, my team is investigating the molecular basis of neurotransmitter receptor changes in the brainstem after bouts of brain hypoxia and their relation to the hyperexcitability and neuronal death upon recovery to normoxia. For Autism, my team is describing the electrophysiological signatures of neocortical activity that permit rapid temporal processing of sound sequences and how their disruption in autism may serve as an electrophysiological phenotype for delayed language development. Our studies are based within the laboratory but also reach out to collaborators in clinical and preclinical settings around the country. Our experiments are inherently multidisciplinary and involve behavioral conditioning, in vivo multiple microelectrode neurophysiology in behaving animals, gene transfer using retroviral-based vectors, in vitro electrophysiology, and real-time optical imaging of neuronal circuits.
- Research Focus Area
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Neuroscience / Neurodevelopment