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Jeanette Hellgren Kotaleski, Ph.D.

Jeanette Hellgren Kotaleski

Jeanette Hellgren Kotaleski, PhD

Research Focus

Besides being a Professor at the School of Computer Science and Communication, KTH (see http://www.csc.kth.se/forskning/cb/), I am affiliated with the Department of Neuroscience at KI.

The main focus of the research has been to use mathematical modeling to understand the neural mechanisms underlying information processing and learning in motor systems. Of specific interest are the basal ganglia, a structure in the brain that is important for the selection and initiation of motor (and cognitive) actions. A long-standing collaborative effort between KTH and KI has been going on over many years, and the goal is to understand the mechanisms for generation and coordination of activity in the spinal cord of vertebrates. Here the lamprey, which is an evolutionary old (a "T-Ford") vertebrate, is used as a model system.

The levels of investigation using computational models range from simulations of large scale neural networks, using both biophysically detailed but also more abstract neuron models, down to kinetic models of subcellular processes (e.g. dopamine induced cascades). The latter approach is important for understanding mechanisms involved in e.g. synaptic plasticity and learning. Also we have used biochemical level models to analyse and optimize industrial DNA sequencing methods, as well as to increase the understanding of insulin-secretion coupling in insulin producing beta cells, some projects of which have been collaborations with the industry.

Understanding of the brain requires interdisciplinary approaches and the integration of heterogeneous and complex data collected at multiple levels of investigation. Because of this the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility was established some years ago. Its main Secretariat, to which I am also affiliated, is located on KI campus (see www.incf.org).

Selected Publications

Huss M, Wang D, Trane C, Wikström M, Hellgren Kotaleski J

An experimentally constrained computational model of NMDA oscillations in lamprey CPG neurons.

Journal of Computational Neuroscience 2008 (in press)

Huss M, Lansner A, Wallen P, El Manira A, Grillner S, Hellgren Kotaleski J

Roles of ionic currents in lamprey CPG neurons: a modeling study.

Journal of Neurophysiology 97: 2696-2711, 2007

Kozlov AK, Lansner A, Grillner S, Hellgren Kotaleski J

A hemicord locomotor network of excitatory interneurons: a simulation study.

Biological Cybernetics, 96: 229-243, 2007

Lindskog M, Kim MS, Wikström MA, Blackwell KT, Hellgren Kotaleski J

Transient calcium and dopamine increase PKA activity and DARPP-32 phosphorylation.

PLoS Computational Biology 2: 1045-1060, 2006

Kotaleski JH, Plenz D, Blackwell KT

Using potassium currents to solve signal noise problems in inhibitory feedforward networks of the striatum.

Journal of Neurophysiology 95: 331-341, 2006

Researcher Jeanette Hellgren Kotaleski

Work:
08-524 879 82
Fax:
08-34 95 44
E-mail:
Department of Neuroscience
Karolinska Institutet
Retzius väg 8
S-17177 Stockholm, Sweden