Assistant Professor
Graduate Training: University of Arizona
Fellowship: University of Arizona
Department of Biology
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
PO Box 6057 Life Sciences Building
Morgantown, WV 26506-6057
t: 304-293-5201 x31465
f: 304-293-6363
e: kevin.daly@mail.wvu.edu
Research Interests
My research focuses on how olfactory (odor) signals are processed in the brain. I am also interested in how this processing changes as the organism experiences real world events. I employ an interdisciplinary systems-level approach that integrates neuroethology, animal learning, behavior-pharmacology, and computational neurosciences within a comparative context.
My lab uses the moth Manduca sexta. The first layer of synaptic interaction in the moth brain, the antennal lobe (AL), is structurally and functionally homologous to the vertebrate olfactory bulb making this species an ideal model system for basic biomedical research. Behavioral analyses of olfactory acuity indicate that insects recognize minute differences between monomolecular odorants. In the AL of the moth brain odorant stimulation elicits a spatiotemporal response from populations of local and output neurons. The dynamics of odor-driven responses in the AL are dependent upon many stimulus variables and are setup by a local network of inhibitory GABA-ergic neurons. This local network contains a number of different cell types and morphologies. Our ongoing research seeks to: 1) characterize spatiotemporal responses within the AL; 2) assess how AL responses change as a function of experience; and 3) assess the role that the inhibitory neurons play in mediating output response patterns and their role of learning-dependent changes in AL output.
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False color image of the antennal lobe of the moth Manduca sexta. Highlighted in yellow is the massive sensory convergence of olfactory receptor neurons into the antennal lobe where they make synaptic contact with local and output cells (red). These synaptic interactions occur in discrete sub regions called glomeruli. Surrounding these glomeruli are gleal cells highlighted in green.
(Image courtesy of Dr. Nicolas Gibson, Division of Neurobiology, Arizona Research Laboratories, University of Arizona.) |
