Office: 216 TBL
Phone: (413) 597-2266
E-mail: szottoli@williams.edu
Area of Interest: Neurobiology
After complete damage to their spinal cords, mammalian vertebrates do not regain function below the wound site. In contrast, after an equivalent injury, non-mammalian vertebrates (e.g., fish and amphibians) are capable of recovery. What is the neuronal basis of this recovery?
Spinal cord crushes result in the loss of function below the wound in goldfish. Over a period of months, a number of behaviors -- including startle responses, swimming, equilibrium, the ability to maneuver and feed from the surface -- return in about 50% of the fish studied. Startle response recovery has been chosen as the index of regeneration because this behavior is quantifiable and because identifiable cells are known to participate in this response. Initial recovery of the startle response is quite different from that of uninjured fish -- so much so that it is questionable whether the startle response would be functional (i.e., the speed with which the response occurs may be too slow for it to act in predator avoidance). However, in long-term studies some fish are capable of regaining startle responses that are indistinguishable from controls. By using physiological and histological techniques in conjunction with these behavioral findings, we hope to determine the neuronal basis of startle recovery and how it might vary between fish.
Zottoli, S.J., Newman, B.C., Rieff, H.I. and Winters, D.C. (1999) Decrease in occurrence of fast startle responses after selective Mauthner cell ablation in goldfish (Carassius auratus). J. Comp. Physiol. A. 184: 207-218
Zottoli, S.J., Akanki, F.R., Hiza, N.A., Ho-Sang Jr., D.A., Motta, M., Tan, X., Watts, K.M. and Seyfarth, E.-A. (1999) Physiological characterization of supramedullary/dorsal neurons of the cunner, Tautogolabrus adspersus. Biol. Bull., 197: 239-240
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Zottoli, S.J. and Faber, D.S. (2000) The Mauthner cell: What has it taught us? THE NEUROSCIENTIST
S.J. Zottoli, D.E.W. Arnolds, N.O. Asamoah, C. Chevez, S.N. Fuller, N.A. Hiza, J.E. Nierman, and L.A. Taboada (2001) Dye Coupling Evidence for Gap Junctions Between Supramedullary/Dorsal Neurons of the Cunner, Tautogolabrus adspersus. Biol. Bull., 201: 277-278.
D. E. Arnolds, S. J. Zottoli, C. E. Adams, S. M. Dineen, S. Fevrier, Y. Guo, and A. J. Pascal (2002) Physiological effects of tricaine on the supramedullary/dorsal neurons of the cunner, Tautogolabrus adspersus Biol. Bulletin, 203: 188-189.
Zottoli, S.J., Burton, O.T., Chambers, J.A., Eseh, R., Gutiérrez, L.M. and Kron, M.M. (2003) Transient Use of Tricaine to Remove the Telencephalon has no Residual Effects on Physiological Recordings of Supramedullary/Dorsal Neurons of the Cunner, Tautogolabrus adspersus Biol. Bull., 205: 211-212.
Zottoli, S.J. and Freemer, M.M. (2003) Recovery of C-starts, equilibrium and targeted feeding after whole spinal cord crush in the adult goldfish, Carassius auratus. J Exp Biol. 206:3015-3029, 2003.
Bierman, H.S., Schriefer, J.E., Zottoli, S.J. and Hale, M.E. (2004) The effects of head and tail stimulation on the withdrawal startle response of the rope fish (Erpetoichthys calabaricus). J. Exp. Biol. (in press).