Prof. Roger Dampney, Dr Jaimie Polson, A/Prof Ann Goodchild, Dr Kieron Rooney.

Lab head: Prof. Roger Dampney
Location: Cardiovascular Neuroscience Laboratory, Level 6, Anderson Stuart Bldg

Do the midbrain colliculi play a role in cardio-respiratory responses to auditory-evoked alerting

Primary supervisor: Jaimie Polson

This project, to be supervised by Dr Jaimie Polson and A/Prof Ann Goodchild will focus on a region within the dorsal midbrain that our laboratory has recently found contains a group of neurons that simultaneously regulate the cardiovascular, respiratory and somatomotor systems, probably in response to “threatening” auditory and visual stimuli.   Very little information is available about the output pathways of these neurons in relation to cardiovascular and respiratory control. The aim of this project will be to combine retrograde neuronal tracing from cardiovascular control sites in the brainstem with c-fos immunohistochemistry following a ‘threatening’ high frequency auditory stimulus to determine whether neurons in the collicular nuclei activated by the stimulus project to the cardiovascular control sites.

Discipline: Biomedical Sciences
Co-supervisors: Ann Goodchild
Keywords: Autonomic nervous system, Stress and Anxiety, Neurosciences
Contact: Email Jaimie Polson