About
14
Publications
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Introduction
Until recently a postdoctoral researcher at Jürgen Sandkühler's lab at Center for Brain Research, Medical University of Vienna. My work there focused on interactions between pain and emotion at the brainstem level, and their modulation by drugs (e.g., cannabinoids, opioids). This follows my PhD studies at Tel-Aviv University, which focused on somatosensory signaling in the cerebellar system, and the development of closed-loop cerebellar neuroprostheses.
Additional affiliations
January 2015 - March 2023
June 2014 - December 2014
Position
- PostDoc Position
Description
- Development of optogenetic techniques in the study of cerebellar motor learning
October 2010 - August 2013
Position
- Instructor
Description
- Course: "Research Methods in Social Sciences". Frontal lectures and paper grading.
Publications
Publications (14)
A very-large-scale integration field-programmable mixed-signal array specialized for neural signal processing and neural modeling has been designed. This has been fabricated as a core on a chip prototype intended for use in an implantable closed-loop prosthetic system aimed at rehabilitation of the learning of a discrete motor response. The chosen...
Neuroprostheses could potentially recover functions lost due to neural damage. Typical neuroprostheses connect an intact brain with the external environment, thus replacing damaged sensory or motor pathways. Recently, closed-loop neuroprostheses, bidirectionally interfaced with the brain, have begun to emerge, offering an opportunity to substitute...
The lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPBN) plays an important role in the processing and establishment of pain aversion. It receives direct input from the superficial dorsal horn and forms reciprocal connections with the periaqueductal grey matter (PAG), which is critical for adaptive behaviour and the modulation of pain processing. Here, using in sit...
Pain and emotion are strongly regulated by neurons in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA), a major output of the limbic system; yet, the neuronal signaling pathways underlying this modulation are incompletely understood. Here, we characterized a subpopulation of CeA neurons that express the CaMKIIα gene (CeACAM neurons) and project to the lat...
Opioids are powerful analgesics commonly used in pain management. However, opioids can induce complex neuroadaptations, including synaptic plasticity, that ultimately drive severe side effects, such as pain hypersensitivity and strong aversion during prolonged administration or upon drug withdrawal, even following a single, brief administration. Th...
The clinical burden faced by chronic pain patients is compounded by affective comorbidities, such as depression and anxiety disorders. Emerging evidence suggests that reactive glial cells in the spinal cord dorsal horn play a key role in the chronification of pain, while supraspinal glia are important for psychological aspects of chronic pain. The...
The aversive aspect of pain constitutes a major burden faced by pain patients. This has been recognized by the pain research community, leading to the development of novel methods focusing on affective-motivational behaviour in pain model animals. The most common tests used to assess pain aversion in animals require cognitive processes, such as ass...
In a series of studies, we demonstrated a brain-computer interface (BCI) system in which a disabled cerebellar network in rat’s brain was replaced by a biomimetic synthetic model that reliably recovered the motor learning function of the cerebellar network [34, 21]. While we proved feasibility by managing some neuroscientific and methodological cha...
Emulating the input–output functions performed by a brain structure opens the possibility for developing neuroprosthetic systems that replace damaged neuronal circuits. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of this approach by replacing the cerebellar circuit responsible for the acquisition and extinction of motor memories. Specifically, we show tha...
The cerebellum is necessary and sufficient for the acquisition and execution of adaptively timed conditioned motor responses following repeated paired presentations of a conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus. The underlying plasticity depends on the convergence of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli signals relayed to the cerebellum...
Chronic electrodes are widely used for brain degenerative and psychiatric daises such as Parkinson's diseases, major depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and for neuronal prosthesis. Brain immune reaction to electrodes in the form of glial scar encapsulates the electrode and reduces the efficacy of deep brain stimulation and neuronal pros...
In this paper the replacement of a lost learning function of rats through a computer-based real-time recording and feedback system is shown. In an experiment two recording electrodes and one stimulation electrode were implanted in an anesthetized rat. During a classical-conditioning paradigm, which includes tone and airpuff stimulation, biosignals...
In this paper we propose a Rapid Prototyping Environment (RPE) for real-time biosignal analysis including ECG, EEG, ECoG and EMG of humans and animals requiring a very precise time resolution. Based on the previous RPE which was mainly designed for developing Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI), the present solution offers tools for data preprocessing,...
Questions
Questions (3)
I am looking for high-quality literature about aversive auditory stimuli in rodents (preferably rats). I am particularly interested if anyone has been able to show unconditioned aversion responses to auditory stimuli while also providing some evidence that these stimuli are not noxious (i.e., are not aversive due to being painful, e.g. do not seem to activate Ad- and C-fibers).
