lolam@pegasus.rutgers.edu

lola_mukhamedieva@hotmail.com

973-353-5945

Graduate Student

Activity-dependent long-term plasticity plays important role in cognitive processes such as learning and memory formation.

My project involves understanding the contribution of 3 types of potassium currents in the activity-dependent co-regulation of different ionic currents in Cancer borealis Stomatogastric ganglion. I focus on IC (inferior cardiac), PD (pyloric dilator) and LP (lateral pyloric) neurons of STG. 

To isolate the ionic currents IKd, IK(Ca), IA and Ih, I exploit pharmacological agents and electrical properties of these ionic currents. All ionic measurements are done in Two Electrode Voltage Clamp that allows to keep the membrane potential at a certain value and nullify the effects of leak current and membrane resistance changes. 

To evaluate these currents modifications the following parameters are studied: maximal conductance, I-V relationship, ionic currents dynamics and kinetics.

Next, I will use Dynamic Clamp to explore the effect of ionic currents changes on intrinsic properties of neuronal membrane.