Dr. Jeffrey S. Stripling

Experimental Training Program
Email: jstripli@uark.edu

Postdoctoral Fellow, Duke University Medical Center, 1974-76
Ph.D., University of Colorado, 1974
B.A., Stanford University, 1968

My primary research interest is in the mechanisms by which cerebral cortex processes and stores information. In my laboratory we have chosen the olfactory cortex of the rat as a system in which to study these mechanisms. By chronically implanting fine wire electrodes in the brain of a rat, we can stimulate and record from the brain of a freely moving animal experiencing no discomfort or distress. Brief patterns of high frequency electrical stimulation applied to neural pathways within the olfactory cortex create patterns of neural activity that mimic those occurring when a rat smells an odor (so called "electric odors"). Research in my laboratory has shown that this stimulation, when repeated, causes a long lasting potentiation of the neural activity it evokes. We think this potentiation plays a role in information processing, storage, and retrieval in olfactory cortex, and may also participate in the development of abnormal events in olfactory cortex such as seizure activity.

We are currently exploring the anatomical identity of the neurons responsible for this potentiation, the role of these neurons in cortical function, and the behavioral significance of this form of potentiation. To assess the characteristics of this potentiation we use a variety of electrophysiological techniques, including intracellular and extracellular recordings from individual neurons in anesthetized animals and evoked potential recordings in freely moving animals. To examine the role of this potentiation in behavior we are currently exploring its role in the processing of natural odors. In addition we are training animals to use low frequency electrical stimulation of olfactory pathways as a discriminative cue in a learning task to determine if learning produces a potentiation in cortical circuits similar to that produced by patterned electrical stimulation.

Representative Publications:

Stripling, J. S., & and Patneau, D. K. (1999). Potentiation of late components in olfactory bulb and piriform cortex requires activation of cortical association fibers. Brain Research, 841, 27 42.

Gilmore, H. L., & Stripling, J. S. (2005, April). Differential habituation of unit activity, beta activity, and gamma activity in olfactory cortex. Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences, Sarasota, Florida.

Gilmore, H. L., & Stripling, J. S. (2004, October). Cortical synchrony modulates odor responses in olfactory cortex. Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, California.