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Department of Psychology

Ford F. Ebner

Professor of Psychology Emeritus
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology

The brain's ability to be molded and shaped by experiences is central to the final stages of brain development. Ebner's work focuses on the fact that the brain circuits continue to be modified by experience throughout life. He seeks to understand the brain mechanisms related to sensory information processing and how they are matured by early experiences. Dr. Ebner uses a rat model in his research on the effects of early sensory experience on brain development. Rats derive much of their sensory information from their large facial whiskers, and simple trimming of the rat's whiskers early after birth produces a sensory deprivation that results in a profound disability later in life: the brains are very difficult to modify by sensory experience, especially those inputs from the deprived whiskers. Dr. Ebner also studies the effects of toxic substances, such as alcohol and dioxin, on the rate of plasticity possible in the rats after they mature. His group has shown that when fetal rats are exposed to alcohol throughout gestation due to maternal drinking, their neurons are slow to adapt to new conditions. The sluggish responses are viewed as one cause for intellectual disabilities that accompany fetal alcohol syndrome in humans. The toxin-related disabilities are thought to arise from selective failure of gene expression in the brain which is normally triggered by neural activity after the animals are born. Dr. Ebner seeks to understand the common mechanisms that link developmental disabilities with those that are caused by strokes in the mature brain. Understanding the effects these conditions have on the brain's plasticity is critically important to the treatment and rehabilitation of those who have been afflicted by these debilitating conditions.

Representative Publications

  • Rema, V., Armstrong-James, M. and Ebner, F.F. (2003) Experience-dependent plasticity is impaired in adult rat barrel cortex after whisker disuse in early postnatal life. J. Neurosci., 23(1):358-366.
  • Rema, V. and Ebner, F.F. (2003) Lesions of mature barrel field cortex interfere with sensory processing and plasticity in connected areas of the contralateral hemisphere. J Neurosci. 2003 Nov 12; 23(32): 10378-87.
  • Sachdev, R.N.S., Berg, R.W., Champney,G.,Kleinfeld, D., and Ebner, F.F. (2003) Unilateral vibrissa contact: changes in amplitude but not timing of rhythmic whisking.SomatosensoryandMotorRes,20(2):163-169.
  • Melzer, P., and Ebner, F.F. (2003) Experimental Model for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Somatic Sensory Cortex in the Unanesthetized Rat. NeuroImage,19:742-750.
  • Rema, V. and Ebner, F.F. (2003) Interhemispheric effects of barrel field cortex lesions in adult rats: J. Neurosci. 23(1):358-366.
  • Rema, V., Armstrong-James, M. and Ebner, F.F. (2003) Experience-dependent plasticity is impaired in adult rat barrel cortex after whisker disuse in early postnatal life. J. Neurosci., 23(1):358-366.
  • Sachdev, R.N.S., Berg, R.W., Champney,G.,Kleinfeld, D., and Ebner, F.F. (2003) Unilateral vibrissa contact: changes in amplitude but not timing of rhythmic whisking. Somatosensory Motor Res, 20(2):163-169.
  • Sachdev, R.N.S., Champney, G.C., Lee, H., Price, R.R., Pickens, D.R., Morgan, V.L., Stefansic, J.D., Melzer, P., and Ebner, F.F. (2003) Experimental Model for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Somatic Sensory Cortex in the Unanesthetized Rat. NeuroImage, 19:742-750.
  • Friedberg, M.H., Lee, S.M. and Ebner, F.F. (2004) The contribution of the principal and spinal trigeminal nuclei to the receptive field properties of thalamic VPM neurons. J. Neurocytol., 33:75-85.
  • Sachdev, R.N.S., Ebner, F.F. and Wilson, C.J. (2004) The effect of sub-threshold up and down states on the whisker evoked response in somatosensory cortex. J. Neurophysiol. (Dec) 92: 3511-3521.
  • Ebner, F.F. and Armstrong-James, M. (2005) The effects of sensory deprivation on sensory function of SI barrel cortex. In: Neural Plasticity in Adult Somatic Sensory-Motor Systems. F. Ebner, ed., CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, Ch. 6, pp. 109-138.
  • Sellien, H., Eshenroder, D.S., and Ebner, F.F. (2005) Comparison of bilateral whisker movement in freely exploring and head-fixed adult rats. Somatosens Mot Res, 22:97-114.
  • Li, L., Rema, V. and Ebner, F.F. (2005) Balancing bilateral inputs: Chronic suppression of activity in barrel field cortex downregulates sensory responses in contralateral barrel field cortex. J. Neurophysiol., 94(5):3342-3356.
  • Li, L. and Ebner, F.F. (2005) Balancing bilateral sensory activity: callosal processing modulates sensory transmission through the contralateral thalamus by altering the response threshold. Exp. Br. Res., 168(4):221-240
  • Schaffer, C.B., Friedman, B., Nishimura,N.,Schroeder, L.F., Tsai , P.S., Ebner, F.F., Lyden, P.D., Kleinfeld, D. (2006) Two-photon Imaging of cortical surface microvessels reveals a robust redistribution in blood flow after vascular occlusion. PLoS Biol. 4(2):e22
  • Melzer, P., Champney, G.C., Maguire, M.J. and Ebner, F.F. (2006) Rate code and temporal code for frequency of whisker stimulation in rat primary and secondary somatic sensory cortex. Exp. Br. Res., 172(3):370-386.
  • Rema, V., Armstrong-James, M., Jenkinson, N. and Ebner, F.F. (2006) Short exposure to an enriched environment accelerates plasticity in the barrel cortex of adult rats. Neuroscience, 140:659-672.
  • Burk, R.F., Christensen, J.M., Maguire, M.J., Austin, L.J., Whetsell, W.O., May, J.M., Hill, K.L., and Ebner, F.F. (2006) Combined deficiency of vitamins E and C causes severe central nervous system damage in the guinea pig. J. Nutrition, 136:1576-1581.
  • Hood, D.B., Woods, L., Brown, L.N., Johnson L.,Ebner, F.F.(2006)Gestational2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin exposure effects on sensory cortex function. NeuroTox., 27:1032-1042.
  • Melzer, P., Sachdev, R.N.S., Jenkinson, E., and Ebner, F.F. (2006) Stimulus frequency processing in awake rat barrel cortex. J. Neurosci.22:26(47):12198-12205.
  • Sellien, H. and Ebner, F.F. (2007) Rapid plasticity following whisker pairing in barrel cortex of the awake rat. Exp. Br. Res. 177(1):1-14.
  • Li, L. and Ebner, F.F. (2007) Cortical modulation of spatial and angular tuning maps in the rat thalamus. J. Neurosci., 27(1):167-179.
  • Melzer P., Mineo L., Ebner F.F. (2007) Optic nerve transection affects development and use-dependent plasticity in neocortex of the rat:Quantitativeacetylcholinesterase imaging. Brain Res. 1139:68-84.
  • Melzer, P. and Ebner, F.F. (2008) Braille, plasticity and the mind. In: Blindness and Brain Plasticity in Navigation and Object Perception. Reiser, Ashmead, Ebner, and Corn, eds. CRC Division of Taylor and Francis, pp. 85-112.