Naohiro Koshiya, D.M.Sc.

Associate Professor

Email: nkoshiya@brni.org

Phone: 304-293-0932

Fax:  304-293-7536

Education:

D.M.Sc. University of Tsukuba, Japan

Research Interests:

Dr. Koshiya’s interest has been in neural circuits.  Studying autonomic reflexes, he discovered involvement of the brainstem respiratory center in the carotid-sympathetic chemoreflex, which raises blood pressure upon hypoxia to protect the brain.  The respiratory rhythm generator was his next target; he visualized the pacemaker of life in the brainstem and demonstrated that the central respiratory rhythm is generated by population of inspiratory neurons synchronized with glutamatergic interconnections.  During the course, Dr. Koshiya developed the new field of microscopic functional neuroanatomy (µFNA), where one can trace neural activities at cellular levels within a group of neurons and subject optically defined members to further biophysical analysis.  This new ground fills the scale gap between the conventional functional neuroanatomy of brain regions (each representing millions of neurons) and the cellular and synaptic neurophysiology (on single or paired neurons).  He has recently advanced the µFNA to a new level to readdress the long-standing questions: what is the substrate of associative learning in mammals, and how does it form in the brain.

Associative memory is fundamental to human intelligence and dignity.  Mechanical understanding of its formation will lead to better understanding of its pathology and to designing drugs that protect against memory loss.

Microscopic Functional Neuroanatomy (µFNA) involving: cellular, subcellular and populational imaging of neural functions, and identification of roles of members in the population function; opto-/electrophysiology of neural networks; mathematical deconvolutions of complex systems and extraction of features from their behaviors.