Timothy Ebner, MD, PhD
Professor and Head, Department of Neuroscience
Professor and Head, Department of Neuroscience
Faculty, Graduate Program in Neuroscience
Max E. and Mary LaDue Pickworth Endowed Chair in Neuroscience
Preceptor, Medical Scientist Training Program (Combined MD/PhD Training Program)
Research
Research Summary/Interests
Neurophysiology of cerebellum and motor cortex.
Our laboratory is trying to understand how single neurons and populations of neurons encode the information needed to plan and execute limb movements. Our goal is to decipher how the brain represents different movement parameters and then uses this information to control movements. We are investigating both kinematic and dynamic movement parameters, recording the activity of neurons in the cerebellum and cerebral cortex in primates during motor behaviors. A variety of movements are studied, including reaching to targets in space, tracking moving targets, the learning of new visuomotor relations, and hand movements. Using analytical and statistical techniques, we sort out how information about movement parameters is embedded in the neuronal discharge.
At a higher level of integration, we are interested in how information in the brain is represented spatially and temporally in populations of neurons. In the cerebellum we are using flavoprotein fluorescence and Ca++ dyes to visualize neural activity. Using epifluorescence and multi-photon imaging, we are able to construct detailed spatial and temporal maps of the neuronal activity in the cerebellar cortex. One major question is to understand the spatial patterns of activity generated during behavior. We are also using optical imaging to examine the abnormalities in the cerebellar cortex in the spinocerebellar and episodic ataxias.
Publications
Cramer, S.W., Haley, S.P., Popa, L.S., Carter, R.E., Scott, E., Flaherty, E.B., Dominguez, J., Aronson, J.D., Sabal, L., Surinach, D., Chen, C.C., Kodandaramaiah, S.B., Ebner, T.J., Wide-field imaging reveals widespread changes in cortical connectivity following repetitive, mild traumatic brain injury in mouse. bioRxiv 2022.02.22.481459; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.22.481459
Streng ML, Popa LS, Ebner TJ. Cerebellar Representations of Errors and Internal Models. Cerebellum. 2022 Oct;21(5):814-820. doi: 10.1007/s12311-022-01406-3.
Donaldson,P.D, Navabi,Z.S., Carter,R.E., Fausner,S.M.L., Ganbari,L., Ebner,T.J., Swisher,S.L., Kodandaramaiah,S.B. Polymer skulls with integrated transparent electrode arrays for cortex-wide opto-electrophysiological recordings. bioRxiv, 2021. DOI: 10.1101/2021.11.13.468490.
Zick JL, Crowe DA, Blackman RK, Schultz K, Bergstrand DW, DeNicola AL, Carter RE, Ebner TJ, Lanier LM, Netoff TI, Chafee MV. Disparate insults relevant to schizophrenia converge on impaired spike synchrony and weaker synaptic interactions in prefrontal local circuits. Curr Biol. 2022 Jan 10;32(1):14-25.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.10.009.
West SL, Aronson JD, Popa LS, Feller KD, Carter RE, Chiesl WM, Gerhart ML, Shekhar AC, Ghanbari L, Kodandaramaiah SB, Ebner TJ. Wide-Field Calcium Imaging of Dynamic Cortical Networks during Locomotion. Cereb Cortex. 2022 Jun 7;32(12):2668-2687. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhab373.
Cramer SW, Carter RE, Aronson JD, Kodandaramaiah SB, Ebner TJ, Chen CC. Through the looking glass: A review of cranial window technology for optical access to the brain. J Neurosci Methods. 2021 Apr 15;354:109100. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2021.109100.
Ghanbari, L, Carter, RE, Rynes, ML, Dominguez, J, Chen, G, Naik, A, Hu, J, Sagar, MAK, Haltom, L, Mossazghi, N, Gray, MM, West, SL, Eliceiri, KW, Ebner, TJ & Bangalore Kodandaramaiah, S 2019, 'Cortex-wide neural interfacing via transparent polymer skulls' Nature communications, vol. 10, no. 1, 1500. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09488-0
Popa, LS, Streng, ML & Ebner, TJ 2019, 'Purkinje Cell Representations of Behavior: Diary of a Busy Neuron', Neuroscientist, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 241-257. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073858418785628
Popa, LS & Ebner, TJ 2019, 'Cerebellum, predictions and errors' Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, vol. 12, 524. https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2018.00524
Streng, ML, Popa, LS & Ebner, TJ 2018, 'Modulation of sensory prediction error in Purkinje cells during visual feedback manipulations' Nature Communications, vol. 9, no. 1, 1099. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03541-0
Streng, ML, Popa, LS & Ebner, TJ 2018, 'Complex Spike Wars: a New Hope' Cerebellum, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 735-746. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-018-0960-3
Popa, LS, Streng, ML & Ebner, TJ 2018, 'Purkinje Cell Representations of Behavior: Diary of a Busy Neuron' Neuroscientist. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073858418785628
Apps, R, Hawkes, R, Aoki, S, Bengtsson, F, Brown, AM, Chen, G, Ebner, TJ, Isope, P, Jörntell, H, Lackey, EP, Lawrenson, C, Lumb, B, Schonewille, M, Sillitoe, RV, Spaeth, L, Sugihara, I, Valera, A, Voogd, J, Wylie, DR & Ruigrok, TJH 2018, 'Correction to: Cerebellar Modules and Their Role as Operational Cerebellar Processing Units (The Cerebellum, (2018), 17, 5, (654-682), 10.1007/s12311-018-0952-3)' Cerebellum, vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 683-684. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-018-0959-9
Chen, G, Carter, RE, Cleary, JD, Reid, TS, Ranum, LP, Swanson, MS & Ebner, TJ 2018, 'Altered levels of the splicing factor muscleblind modifies cerebral cortical function in mouse models of myotonic dystrophy' Neurobiology of Disease, vol. 112, pp. 35-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbd.2018.01.003
Hedges, VL, Chen, G, Yu, L, Krentzel, AA, Starrett, JR, Zhu, JN, Suntharalingam, P, Remage-Healey, L, Wang, JJ, Ebner, TJ & Mermelstein, PG 2018, 'Local Estrogen Synthesis Regulates Parallel Fiber-Purkinje Cell Neurotransmission Within the Cerebellar Cortex' Endocrinology, vol. 159, no. 3, pp. 1328-1338. https://doi.org/10.1210/en.2018-00039
Streng, ML, Popa, LS & Ebner, TJ 2017, 'Climbing fibers predict movement kinematics and performance errors' Journal of neurophysiology, vol. 118, no. 3, pp. 1888-1902. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00266.2017