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Charles L. Cox Assistant Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Pharmacology, Neuroscience, and Biophysics Ph.D. 1993, University of California at Riverside Functional organization and neuromodulation of thalamocorticalcircuits, neuronal excitability, synaptic physiology and plasticity, epilepsy Charles L. Cox 2357 Beckman, MC-251 407 S Goodwin Urbana, IL 61801 217-265-0573 clcox@life.uiuc.edu

My fundamental interests include the understanding of cellular mechanisms underlying behavioral plasticity. Using a reductionist type approach, these cellular mechanisms likely serve as the bases for behavioral and cognitive functions such as attention, arousal, perception, learning and memory. My research is concentrated on the neurophysiology and pharmacology of neocortical and thalamic neurons in the mammalian central nervous system. The core of this research is on the cellular mechanisms involved with the regulation and modulation of neuronal excitability at both the synaptic and membrane level. These studies focus on thalamocortical circuits, because of the critical relationship of the neocortex and thalamus in sensory processing, behavioral arousal, attention and certain pathophysiological conditions such as epilepsy. While both the thalamus and neocortex are complicated structures individually, they also form an intricate, reciprocal relationship that is critical for understanding sensory/motor/associative processing at both the cellular and systems level. The importance of this works lies in the fact that the majority of behavioral activities including arousal, attention, sensory perception, learning and memory result from a concerted effort by multiple neuronal systems. Thus, information integration at the single cell level is very critical, as well as the role of these individual cells in circuit based activities. Long-lasting modifications in neuronal excitability (i.e., neuromodulation, synaptic plasticity) have also been hypothesized to be the cellular correlates underlying these behavioral activities.

The work in my lab addresses four basic issues:

• functional organization of sensory neocortex and thalamus
• thalamocortical interaction and modulation
• brainstem regulation of thalamic/cortical neuron excitability
• integration of thalamocortical and intracortical information in the neocortex

The experimental approaches we use in the laboratory include a combination of neuroanatomical, neurophysiological and neuropharmacological techniques. Our studies range from the level of single channels to intact neuronal networks in vitro. This research strategy, ranging from the study of intracellular messenger systems to the synchronized activity of large neuronal populations, should provide a better understanding of cellular mechanisms that underlie lasting modulatory changes in neuronal excitability and provide a better understanding of physiological mechanisms that underlie behavior.