Kathleen Cullen, Faculty Member

Research Area:  Neurophysiology

Research Description:

An important function of the central nervous system is to keep track of where we are in relation to where we are going as we move through our environment. Research in Dr. Cullen's laboratory explores how cognitive, visual and other inputs are used to generate internal representation of self motion. The experimental approach is multidisciplinary and includes recording from individual neurons in the brain while an alert animal performs a variety of behavioural tasks, as well as behavioral studies in humans, nonhuman primates, and mice. Neuronal activity is correlated with various aspects of the orienting behaviour to further our understanding of how movements of the eyes, head, and body are coordinated in three dimensional space. Funding for the laboratory is provided by the National Institutes for Health (NIH), Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and McGill University.

Education:   B.Sc., Brown, Ph.D., Chicago

Recent Publications:
(last 5 years)

Roy J. E. and Cullen K.E.
Selective Processing of Vestibular Reafference during Self Generated Motion J. Neuroscience, 21: 2131-2142, 2001.

Sylvestre P.A., Galiana H.L., and Cullen K.E.
Conjugate and vergence oscillations during saccades and gaze shifts: implications for integrated control of binocular movement. J. Neurophysiol, 87(1):257-72, 2002.

Dubrovsky A.S. and Cullen K.E.
Head, Eye, and Gaze Movement Dynamics During Closed and  Open-Loop Head-unrestrained Pursuit J. Neurophysiol, 87(2):859-75, 2002.

Roy J. E. and Cullen K.E.
Vestibuloocular reflex signal modulation during voluntary and passive head movements.  J. Neurophysiol, 87(5):2337-57, 2002.

Cullen K.E. and Minor L.B.
Semicircular Canal Afferents Similarly Encode Active And Passive Head-On-Body Rotations:  Implications For The Role Of Vestibular Efference. J. Neuroscience, 22 (RC226): 1-7, 2002.

Huterer M. and Cullen K.E.
Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex Dynamics During High Frequency And High Acceleration Rotations Of The Head On Body In Rhesus Monkey. J. Neurophysiol, 88: 13-28, 2002.

Sylvestre P.A. and Cullen K.E.
Dynamics of abducens nucleus neuron discharges during disjunctive saccades.  J. Neurophysiol, 88:3452-68, 2002.

Sylvestre P.A., Choi  J.T.L., and Cullen K.E. 
Discharge Dynamics of Oculomotor Neural Integrator Neurons During Conjugate and Disjunctive Saccades and Fixation, J. Neurophysiol , 90:739-54, 2003.

Roy J. E. and Cullen K.E.
Brainstem pursuit pathways: dissociating visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive inputs during combined eye-head gaze tracking. J. Neurophysiol, 90:271-90, 2003.

Roy J. E. and Cullen K.E.
Dissociating Self-Generated from Passively Applied Head Motion: Neural Mechanisms in the Vestibular Nuclei. J. Neuroscience, 24(9):2102-11, 2004.

McClung J. R., Cullen K. E., Shall M. S., Dimitrova1 D. M., and Goldberg S. J.
Effects of Electrode Penetrations Into the Abducens Nucleus of the Monkey: Eye Movement Recordings and Histopathological Evaluation of the Nuclei and Lateral Rectus Muscles.  Exp Brain Res 158(2):180-8, 2004.

Vidal P.-P  , Degallaix L. , Josset P.,  Gasc J.-P., And Cullen K.E.
Postural And Locomotor Control In Normal  And Vestibularly Deficient Mice. J. Physiol. (Lond) 559(Pt 2):625-38, 2004.

Cullen K.E., Huterer M.,  Braidwood D.A, and Sylvestre P.A.
Time course of vestibulo-ocular reflex suppression during gaze shifts. J. Neurophysiol. 92(6):3408-22

Cullen K.E and Roy J. E.
Signal Processing in the Vestibular System during Active versus Passive Head Movements. Invited  review: J. Neurophysiol. 91(5):1919-33, 2004.

Cullen K.E.
Sensory signals during active versus passive movement
Invited  review: Current Opinion in Neurobiol. 14(6):698-706, 2004.

Pathmanathan J.,  Presnell R., Cromer J.A, Cullen K.E., and Waitzman D.M.
Spatial characteristics of neurons in the central mesencephalic reticular formation (cMRF) of head unrestrained monkeys. Exp Brain Res Nov 15;:1-16, 2005.

Pathmanathan J.,  Cromer J.A, Cullen K.E., and Waitzman D.M.
Temporal characteristics of neurons in the central mesencephalic reticular formation (cMRF) of head unrestrained monkeys. Exp Brain Res Nov 15;:1-22, 2005.

Sylvestre P.A. and Cullen K.E.
Premotor Correlates of Integrated Feedback Control for Eye-Head Gaze Shifts J. Neuroscience 26: 4922-4929, 2006.

Kathleen Cullen and Soroush Sadeghi  (Web publication in Scholarpedia)
Vestibular system. Scholarpedia, 3(1):3013, 2008.

 

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