Department of Neuroscience

Research Abstract

Awake animals normally maintain a particular orientation with respect to gravity. This feature of behavior is so fundamental that it's ingrained in our language: we refer to a failed business as going “belly up.” Posture is intimately dependent on signals from the inner ear, but we understand very little about how that information is mapped onto motor outputs. Our lab studies how sensory information about orientation and movement drives appropriate body movements to adjust posture... read more

Selected Publications

• Liu Z, Kimura Y, Higashijima SI, Hildebrand DGC, Morgan JL, Bagnall MW. Central Vestibular Tuning Arises from Patterned Convergence of Otolith Afferents. Neuron. 2020 Nov 25;108(4):748-762.e4.
• Callahan RA, Roberts R, Sengupta M, Kimura Y, Higashijima SI, Bagnall MW. Spinal V2b neurons reveal a role for ipsilateral inhibition in speed control. Elife. 2019 Jul 29;8:e47837.
• Roberts R, Elsner J, Bagnall MW. Delayed Otolith Development Does Not Impair Vestibular Circuit Formation in Zebrafish. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol. 2017 Jun;18(3):415-425.
• Bagnall MW, McLean DL (2014). Modular organization of axial microcircuits in zebrafish. Science. 343(6167):197-200.
• Bagnall MW, Hull C, Bushong EA, Ellisman MH, Scanziani M (2011). Multiple clusters of release sites formed by individual thalamic afferents onto cortical interneurons ensure reliable transmission. Neuron. 71(1):180-94.
• McElvain LE, Bagnall MW, Sakatos A, du Lac S (2010). Bidirectional plasticity gated by hyperpolarization controls the gain of postsynaptic firing responses at central vestibular nerve synapses. Neuron. 68(4):763-75.
• Bagnall MW, Zingg B, Sakatos A, Moghadam SH, Zeilhofer HU, du Lac S (2009). Glycinergic projection neurons of the cerebellum. J Neurosci. 29(32):10104-10.
• Bagnall MW, McElvain LE, Faulstich M, du Lac S (2008). Frequency-independent synaptic transmission supports a linear vestibular behavior. Neuron. 60(2): 343-52.
• Bagnall MW, Stevens RJ, du Lac S (2007). Transgenic mouse lines subdivide medial vestibular nucleus neurons into discrete, neurochemically distinct populations. J Neurosci. 27(9): 2318-30.

For a complete list of Dr. Bagnall's publications, click here.