Anita Disney
Assistant Professor of Neurobiology
Overview
The goal of the research in my lab is to determine the role(s) that neuromodulators play in cognition – and by what circuit mechanisms and over what spatial and temporal scales they subserve those functions. Our primary focus is on the noradrenergic, serotonergic and cholinergic systems in the neocortex. The techniques we employ are diverse: we use a biosensor that combines classical electrophysiological recording capabilities with the ability to measure the local chemical environment at high spatial and temporal resolution; we combine electrophysiological recording with pharmacological manipulation to examine causal relationships between neuromodulation, neuronal activity and behavioral performance; and we study the structure of neuromodulatory systems in the neocortex from a comparative perspective at both the light and electron microscopic levels.
Selected Grants
Neurobiology Training Program awarded by National Institutes of Health (Mentor). 2019 to 2024
Bi-directional, task-dependent control of thalamic input gain, in layer 4c of the primary visual cortex, by the cholinergic and serotonergic neuromodulatory systems awarded by National Institutes of Health (Principal Investigator). 2019 to 2024
Muscarinic-type 2 acetylcholine receptor expression and distribution in macaque early vision; evaluating a candidate model species for Alzheimer's Disease awarded by Ruth K. Broad Biomedical Research Foundation (Principal Investigator). 2020 to 2021
Hawken, Michael J., et al. “Functional Clusters of Neurons in Layer 6 of Macaque V1.” J Neurosci, vol. 40, no. 12, Mar. 2020, pp. 2445–57. Pubmed, doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1394-19.2020. Full Text
Disney, Anita A., and Michael J. Higley. “Diverse Spatiotemporal Scales of Cholinergic Signaling in the Neocortex.” J Neurosci, vol. 40, no. 4, Jan. 2020, pp. 720–25. Pubmed, doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1306-19.2019. Full Text
Disney, Anita A., and Jason S. Robert. “Translational implications of the anatomical nonequivalence of functionally equivalent cholinergic circuit motifs.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, Dec. 2019. Pubmed, doi:10.1073/pnas.1902280116. Full Text
Krueger, Juliane, and Anita A. Disney. “Structure and function of dual-source cholinergic modulation in early vision.” J Comp Neurol, vol. 527, no. 3, Feb. 2019, pp. 738–50. Pubmed, doi:10.1002/cne.24590. Full Text
Coppola, Jennifer, and Anita Disney. Most calbindin-immunoreactive neurons, but few calretinin-immunoreative neurons, express the m1 acetylcholine receptor in the middle temporal visual area of the macaque monkey. Feb. 2018. Epmc, doi:10.1101/271924. Full Text
MacDougall, Matthew, et al. “Optogenetic manipulation of neural circuits in awake marmosets.” Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 116, no. 3, American Physiological Society, Sept. 2016, pp. 1286–94. Crossref, doi:10.1152/jn.00197.2016. Full Text
Disney, Anita A., and John H. Reynolds. “Expression of m1-type muscarinic acetylcholine receptors by parvalbumin-immunoreactive neurons in the primary visual cortex: A comparative study of rat, guinea pig, ferret, macaque, and human.” Journal of Comparative Neurology, vol. 522, no. 5, Wiley, Apr. 2014, pp. 986–1003. Crossref, doi:10.1002/cne.23456. Full Text
Disney, Anita A., et al. “Cholinergic suppression of visual responses in primate V1 is mediated by GABAergic inhibition.” Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 108, no. 7, American Physiological Society, Oct. 2012, pp. 1907–23. Crossref, doi:10.1152/jn.00188.2012. Full Text
Disney, Anita A., et al. “Gain modulation by nicotine in macaque v1.” Neuron, vol. 56, no. 4, Nov. 2007, pp. 701–13. Pubmed, doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2007.09.034. Full Text
Disney, Anita A., and Simon R. Schultz. “Hallucinations and acetylcholine: Signal or noise?” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 27, no. 6, Cambridge University Press (CUP), Dec. 2004, pp. 790–91. Crossref, doi:10.1017/s0140525x0425018x. Full Text