Shilpa Chatlani B.S., University of Rochester email: shilpa at uchicago dot edu Advisor: Jay Goldberg

We don't always fall when we trip, thanks to efficient function of our vestibular system. The vestibular system is responsible for an animal's sense of balance. Vestibular organs, situated in the inner ear, sense mechanical head movements and transduce them to electrical signals that are transmitted to the brain to elicit a response. Hair cells are the mechano-transducers innervated by primary afferents. In amniotes, two types of hair cells, type I and type II, are innervated by morphologically different afferent endings, the calyx and bouton endings respectively. The former is an enlarged, cup-shaped ending that ensheaths the type I hair cell almost entirely. Using the turtle as a model system, I study the determinants of synaptic transmission and discharge regularity that underlie the successful function of this unique synapse.

Committee on Neurobiology   |   University of Chicago

10/14/08