Edward Bartlett

Biography

Dr. Edward Bartlett, is employed as an Associate Professor of Department of Biological Sciences at Purdue University. His research interests include: The goal in the laboratory is to understand how physical signals, especially sound, are represented by neural activity in the auditory thalamus and auditory cortex in normal and pathological conditions. These neural representations then form the basis for sound perception and the decisions or actions that arise as a consequence. Experimentally, our studies of neural representations involve recording the activities of individual neurons in the auditory thalamus and cortex while an awake animal listens to sound stimuli. Neural activity takes the form of patterns of rapid electrical changes in the neuron, called action potentials or spikes. Changes in the rate and pattern of spiking by a neuron can indicate the presence of a particular sound feature, such as the frequency or the loudness of the sound. In pathological conditions such as aging or dyslexia, it is known that auditory perception is degraded. However, it is unknown how this translates to a degradation in the ability of neurons to reliably represent sound features. We will investigate this issue in our experiments.

Research Interest

To understand how physical signals, especially sound, are represented by neural activity in the auditory thalamus and auditory cortex in normal and pathological conditions. These neural representations then form the basis for sound perception and the decisions or actions that arise as a consequence. Experimentally, our studies of neural representations involve recording the activities of individual neurons in the auditory thalamus and cortex while an awake animal listens to sound stimuli. Neural activity takes the form of patterns of rapid electrical changes in the neuron, called action potentials or spikes. Changes in the rate and pattern of spiking by a neuron can indicate the presence of a particular sound feature, such as the frequency or the loudness of the sound. In pathological conditions such as aging or dyslexia, it is known that auditory perception is degraded. However, it is unknown how this translates to a degradation in the ability of neurons to reliably represent sound features. We will investigate this issue in our experiments