Professor for Neurophysiology (W3)
Institute: Institute for Physiology Department of Neurophysiology Medical Faculty
44780 Bochum, Germany Phone: +49 234 32 22042
Mail: denise.manahan-vaughan@rub.de
Website: www.rub.de/neurophys

 

Aim: Investigation of the role of catecholaminergic neurons in the pathogenesis of neurodegeneration

Catecholaminergic neuromodulation is profoundly important for hippocampus-dependent associative learning and experience encoding in the form of synaptic plasticity (Hansen and Manahan-Vaughan, 2014; Hagena et al., 2016; Hagena and Manahan-Vaughan, 2015; Twarkowski and Manahan-Vaughan, 2016) Catecholaminergic neurons serve as a hub for homeostasis of affective behavior. Here, in particular catecholaminergic transmitter release of the locus coeruleus (LC, (Poe et al., 2020)) play a particularly important role. Recently, the LC has been proposed to play permissive roles in the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of neurodegenerative brain disorders (Peterson and Li, 2018; De Marco and Venneri, 2018). In this project, the doctoral candidate will explore to what extent the LC and catecholaminergic neurotransmission contribute to the propagation of Ab (1-42)-mediated neurodegeneration at the level of the hippocampus.

 

 10 selected publications 

• Südkamp N, Shchyglo O, Manahan-Vaughan D (2021) Absence of Pannexin 1 stabiizes intrinsic excitability of CA1 pyramidal cells in mice after intracerebral treatment with A? (1- 42) and prevents LTP deficits. Frontiers Aging Neurosci. 13:591735.

• Beckmann D, Feldmann M, Shchyglo O, Manahan-Vaughan D (2020) Hippocampal synaptic plasticity and plasticity-related neurotransmitter receptor expression are profoundly altered by gradual loss of hearing ability. Cerebral Cortex. 30:4581-4596.

• Poe G, Foote S, Eschenko O, Johanson JJ, Bouret S, Aston-Jones G, Harley CW, Manahan-Vaughan D, Weinshenker D, Valentino R, Berridge C, Chandler C, Waterhouse B, Sara SJ (2020) Locus coeruleus: a new look on the blue spot. Nature Rev Neurosci. 21: 644-659. 10

• Dubovyk V, Manahan-Vaughan D. (2019) Gradient of expression of dopamine D2 receptors along the dorso-ventral axis of the hippocampus. Front Syn Neurosci. 11:28

• Feldmann M, Beckmann D, Eysel U, Manahan-Vaughan D (2019) Early loss of vision results in extensive reorganisation of plasticity-related receptors and alterations in hippocampal function. Cerebral Cortex 29: 892-905. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhy297

• Perea G, Gómez R, Mederos S, Covelo A, Ballesteros JJ, Schlosser L, Hernández-Vivanco A, Martín-Fernández M, Quintana R, Rayan A, Díez A, Fuenzalida M, Agarwal A, Bergles DE, Bettler B, Manahan-Vaughan D, Martín ED, Kirchhoff F, Araque A (2016) Activity- dependent switch of GABAergic inhibition into glutamatergic excitation in astrocyte-neuron networks. eLife 5:e20362

• Twarkowski H, Hagena H, Manahan-Vaughan D (2016) The 5-Hydroxytryptamine4 (5-HT4) receptor enables differentiation of informational content and encoding in the hippocampus. Hippocampus, 26:875-91.

• Kalweit A., Yang H., Colitti-Klausnitzer J, Fülöp L, Bozsó Z, Penke B, Manahan-Vaughan D (2015) Acute intracerebral treatment with amyloid-beta (1-42) alters the profile of neuronal oscillations that accompany LTP induction and results in impaired LTP in freely behaving rats. Front. Beh Neurosci, 9:103

• Hansen N, Manahan-Vaughan D (2015) Locus coeruleus stimulation facilitates long-term depression in the dentate gyrus that requires activation of ‰-adrenergic receptors. Cerebral Cortex. 25:1889-96.

• Hansen N, Manahan-Vaughan D (2014) Dopamine D1/D5 receptors mediate informational saliency that promotes persistent hippocampal long-term plasticity. Cerebral Cortex 24:845-58.