Maurice Chacron - Assistant Professor

Research Area:  Neuroscience

Research Description:

My long term research goal is to understand the basic mechanisms by which neurons process sensory information. While critical for diagnostic and treatment of sensory deficiencies, these mechanisms are poorly understood to this day. Since sensory processing strategies are shared amongst sensory systems, significant progress towards this goal can be achieved by studying the somewhat simpler sensory systems of lower vertebrates. These animals respond to simple natural stimuli with obvious behavioral relevance and share common brain architecture with higher vertebrates including humans. We use a combination of behavior, in vivo electrophysiology, and modeling to link cellular processes to sensory processing at the systems level as well as behavior in weakly electric fish. Research projects are on diverse topics such as: learning and memory, population coding of sensory input, feedback, and neuromodulators.

Education:  Ph.D., University of Ottawa

Selected Publications:

Chacron, M.J. (2006). Nonlinear Information Processing in a Model Sensory System. Journal of Neurophysiology 95: 2933-2946.

Chacron, M.J., Maler, L., Bastian, J. (2005). Electroreceptor Neuron Dynamics Shape Information Transmission. Nature Neuroscience 8: 673-678.

Chacron, M.J., Maler, L., Bastian, J. (2005). Feedback and Feedforward Control of Frequency Tuning to Naturalistic Stimuli. Journal of Neuroscience 25: 5521-5532.

Bastian, J., Chacron, M.J., Maler, L. (2004). Plastic and Non-Plastic Pyramidal Cells Perform Unique Roles in a Network Capable of Adaptive Redundancy Reduction. Neuron 41: 767-779.

Oswald, A.M.M., Chacron, M.J., Doiron, B., Bastian, J., Maler, L. (2004). Parallel Processing of Sensory Input by Bursts and Isolated Spikes. Journal of Neuroscience 24: 4351-4362.

Chacron, M.J., Lindner, B., Longtin, A. (2004). Noise Shaping by Interspike Interval Correlations Increases Information Transfer. Physical Review Letters 92: 080601.

Chacron, M.J., Doiron, B., Maler, L., Longtin, A., Bastian, J. (2003). Non-classical receptive field mediates switch in a sensory neuron’s frequency tuning. Nature 423: 77-81.

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