Professor

Graduate Training: University of Iowa
Fellowship: National Institutes of Health

Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology
WVU School of Medicine
One Medical Center Drive
PO Box 9302 Health Sciences Center
Morgantown, WV 26506
t: 304-293-0497
f: 304-293-4855
e: bschreurs@hsc.wvu.edu

Research Interests

My research is in learning and memory, synaptic plasticity, and functional imaging. The lab has been studying the neural basis of learning and memory using a number of model systems including the marine snail, Hermissenda, the rabbit eyelid/nictitating membrane preparation, and human eyelid conditioning. Studies have focused on revealing the behavioral laws and identifying the neural substrates of learning and memory as well as examining the synaptic plasticity that occurs at these substrates. We use classical conditioning as a behavioral paradigm and slice electrophysiology and functional imaging as ways of recording the changes that learning induces in the brain. We are currently using patch clamp recording and calcium imaging to identify specific ion channels involved in learning-dependent changes in the cerebellum. Most recently, we have developed an animal model of Alzheimer’s disease which can produce Alzheimer’s-like pathology using simple dietary manipulations

Immunohistochemical staining of Purkinje cells in a rabbit cerebellar cortex