Publications by authors named "E R Griff"
Mitral and tufted cells in the main olfactory bulb (MOB) of anesthetized rats exhibit vigorous spontaneous activity, action potentials produced in the absence of odor stimuli. The central hypothesis of this paper is that tonic activity of centrifugal input to the MOB modulates the spontaneous activity of MOB neurons. The spontaneous activity of centrifugal fibers causes a baseline of steady-state neurotransmitter release, and odor stimulation produces transient changes in the resulting spontaneous activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChanging undergraduate human anatomy and physiology laboratories: perspectives from a large-enrollment course.
Adv Physiol Educ
September 2016
In the present article, a veteran lecturer of human anatomy and physiology taught several sections of the laboratory component for the first time and shares his observations and analysis from this unique perspective. The article discusses a large-enrollment, content-heavy anatomy and physiology course in relationship to published studies on learning and student self-efficacy. Changes in the laboratory component that could increase student learning are proposed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The study utilized detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) to explore the spontaneous activity of mitral cells in the rat olfactory bulb, revealing two distinct subclasses of neurons.
- While no significant differences were found in the shorter timescales of interspike intervals, a notable distinction emerged in longer timescales—Group B neurons showed fractal scaling, whereas Group A displayed random variation.
- The findings spark questions about the functional roles of these neuron groups, challenging existing theories like self-organized criticality to explain the observed dynamics and suggesting the need for further research.
Background: Within the cilia of vertebrate olfactory receptor neurons, Ca(2+) accumulates during odor transduction. Termination of the odor response requires removal of this Ca(2+), and prior evidence suggests that both Na(+)/Ca(2+) exchange and plasma membrane Ca(2+)-ATPase (PMCA) contribute to this removal.
Principal Findings: In intact mouse olfactory epithelium, we measured the time course of termination of the odor-induced field potential.
Introduction: In vivo, most neurons in the main olfactory bulb exhibit robust spontaneous activity. This paper tests the hypothesis that spontaneous activity in olfactory receptor neurons drives much of the spontaneous activity in mitral and tufted cells via excitatory synapses.
Methods: Single units were recorded in vivo from the main olfactory bulb of a rat before, during, and after application of lidocaine to the olfactory nerve.