The Big Picture

Ripples in the connectome. See diagram.

The Circuit

Auditory localization pathway in barn owls.

The Techniques

Microcircuit reconstruction. This includes in vivo electrophysiology, auditory and visual mapping, in vitro tracer injection, immmunohistochemistry, confocal microscopy, super-resolution microscopy, electron microscopy, computer-based 3D visualization, microanatomical measurement, simulations and boostrap analysis.

My Teaching Interests

Plasticity and learning, auditory system, human physiology, seminar speaking.

Publications:

Nichols GS and DeBello WM (2008) Bidirectional regulation of the cyclic-AMP response element binding protein encodes spatial map alignment in prism-adapting barn owls. Journal of Neuroscience 28(40):9898-9909.

DeBello WM (2008) Micro-rewiring as a substrate for learning. Trends in Neurosciences 31(11):600-610.

McBride TJ, Rodriguez-Contreras A, Trinh A, Bailey R and DeBello WM (2008) Learning drives differential clustering of axodendritic contacts in the barn owl auditory system. Journal of Neuroscience 28(27):6960-73.

Swofford JA and DeBello WM. (2007) Transcriptome changes associated with instructed learning in the barn owl auditory localization pathway. Developmental Neurobiology 67(11):1457-77.

DeBello WM, Mikula S, Nguyen PL, Karten HJ and Jones EG (2006) A digital atlas of the brain of the barn owl, Tyto Alba. Online publication: BrainMaps.org.

Rodriguez-Contreras A, Liu XB and DeBello WM (2005) Axo-dendritic contacts onto calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase type II-expressing neurons in the barn owl auditory space map. Journal of Neuroscience 25(23):5611-5622.

DeBello WM and Knudsen EI (2004) Multiple sites of adaptive plasticity in the auditory localization pathway. Journal of Neuroscience 24(31):6853-6861.