Ph.D., Yale University
Professor
Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology
487 Biomedical Center
Tel: (401) 863-9803
Email: Julie_Kauer@Brown.edu
Go to lab web page

Our laboratory focuses on understanding mechanisms involved in information storage and modulation of excitability in the brain, using modern electrophysiological, optical and morphological techniques in brain slices. We are particularly interested in synaptic plasticity, including long-term potentiation and long-term depression (LTP and LTD). Lab efforts are concentrated in two brain regions, the hippocampus and the ventral tegmental area (VTA). The hippocampus is required for normal formation of long-term memory, and the cellular mechanisms that underlie information storage in the vertebrate brain were first observed and have been intensively studied in the hippocampus. The laboratory is especially interested in understanding synaptic plasticity at synapses onto pyramidal cells and GABAergic interneurons in hippocampus. Lab members have also begun recording from neurons in the VTA, a mesencephalic region involved in processing normal reward. This region is essential in the development of drug addiction. We have found that drugs of abuse act directly in the VTA to block LTD; this effect may be anearly step in the gradual enhancement of craving produced by addictive drugs.

Kauer, J. A. (2004) Learning mechanisms in addiction: synaptic plasticity in the ventral tegmental area as a result of exposure to drugs of abuse. Ann. Rev. Physiol., in press.

Kauer, J.A. (2003) Addictive drugs and stress trigger a common change at VTA synapses. Neuron 37: 549-550.

Gutlerner, J.L., E.C. Penick, E. M. Snyder and J. A. Kauer (2002) Novel PKA-dependent long-term depression of excitatory synapses. Neuron 36: 921-931.

Kornblum, J.L., S. Jones and J.A. Kauer. (2000) Amphetamine blocks long-term depression of ventral tegmental area synapses. J. Neurosci. 20: 5575-5580.

Tecott, L.H., S.F. Logue, J.M. Wehner and J.A. Kauer. (1998) Selective impairments in contextual processing and dentate gyrus function in mice lacking serotonin 5-HT2C receptors. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 95: 15026-15031.

Kandler, K., L.C. Katz, and J.A. Kauer. (1998) Focal photolysis of caged glutamate reveals an entirely postsynaptic form of hippocampal long-term depression. Nature Neurosci. 1: 119-123.

McMahon, L.L., J.H. Williams and J.A. Kauer. (1998) Functionally distinct groups of interneurons identified during rhythmic oscillations in hippocampus. J. Neurosci. 18: 5640-5651.

McMahon, L.L. and J.A. Kauer (1997) Hippocampal interneurons are excited by serotonin-gated ion channels.  J. Neurophysiol. 78: 2493-2502.

McMahon, L.L., and J. A. Kauer (1997) Hippocampal interneurons express a novel form of synaptic plasticity.  Neuron 18: 1-11.