Marie Goeritz

Marie Goeritz

Department: 415 South Street
Start Year: 2012
Starting Institution: Brandeis University
Current Institution: Brandeis University
Project Title: Temperature effects on sensorimotor integration in a small neural network
Abstract:

Many cold-blooded animals live in habitats where temperature can change quickly and over a large range. This poses a very difficult problem for the organism, namely how to tune the temperature-dependent rates of all its biochemical and biophysical processes so that the physiology and behavior remain functional over the entire range of temperatures. I am studying this problem in the stomatogastric nervous system (STNS) of the Jonah crab Cancer borealis, which shows a remarkable robustness of rhythmic network activity in the face of temperature perturbation. Specifically, I aim to understand if these crabs display a preference when exposed to a gradient of temperature preferences, whether acclimation to cold or warm water changes any temperature preference, and how sensory input is integrated into the network circuits at different temperatures.


Roles

Fellow