Email: kkarl@pitt.edu

Lab Website: http://kandler.neurobio.pitt.edu/

Ph. D., University of Tübingen, Germany

Research Interests

Our lab is interested in the mechanims that underly the development and plasticity of neuronal circuits. Current research centers on the questions how immature inhibitory pathways develop, become reorganized, and become functionally aligned with excitatory connections.

Neuronal activity, evoked by sensory experience or generated spontaneously in the immature brain, plays a pivotal role in the formation and maturation of neuronal networks. Abnormal neuronal activity patterns result in the formation of abnormally organized neuronal circuits and concomitantly in impaired sensory, motor, or cognitive performance.

While the mechanims by which neuronal activity shapes the organization of excitatory networks is has been intensively investigated (for reviews see e.g. Katz and Shatz, 1996; Lichtman and Colman, 2000), very little is know about the developement and placticy of inhibitory networks. This is to a good deal due to the fact that inhibitory circuits usually consist of local and not well charaxcterized circuits that are difficlut to investigate experimentally.

To avoid this problem, we use the lateral superior olive (LSO) as model system in which inhibitory connections are very well organized and amendable for experimental manilulations (Sanes and Friauf, 2000). The LSO is a binaural auditory nucleus in the brainstem of mammals which processes interaural intensity differences to localize sound in space.

Recent Publications

• Kandler K: Activity-dependent organization of inhibitory circuits: lessons from the auditory system. Curr Opin Neurobiol 14: 96-104, 2004.

• Ene FA, Kullmann, PA, Gillespie DC, Kandler K: Glutamatergic calcium responses in the developing lateral superior olive: Receptor types and their specific activation by synaptic activity patterns. J Neurophys 90: 2581-2591, 2003.
• Kim G, Kandler K: Functional elimination and strengthening of glycinergic/GABAergic connections during formation of a tonotopic map. Nature Neurosci 6: 282-290, 2003.
• Kullmann PHM, Ene F. Aura, and Kandler K: Glycinergic and GABAergic calcium responses in the developing lateral superior olive. Europ J Neurosci 15: 1093-1104, 2002.
• Land PW, Kandler K: Somatotopic organization of rat thalamocortical slices. J Neurosci Meth 119: 15-21. 2002.
• Kullmann PHM, Kandler K: Glycinergic/GABAergic synapses in the lateral superior olive are excitatory in neonatal C57Bl/6J mice. Dev Brain Res 131: 143-147, 2001.
• Leszkiweicz DN, Potthoff WK, Kandler K, Aizenman E (2000) Enhancement of NMDA receptor-mediated currents by light in rat neurons in vitro. J Physiol. (Lond.) 524: 365-374, 2000.
• Conrad PG, Givens RS, Weber JFW, Kandler K: New phototriggers: Extending the p-Hydroxyphenacyl p-p absorption range. Organic Letters 2: 1545-1547, 2000.
• Kandler K, Katz LC, Kauer JA: Focal photolysis of caged glutamate reveals an entirely postsynaptic form of hippocampal long-term depression. Nature Neurosci 2: 119-123. 1998.