Neural plasticity; neuroendocrinology

How do ovarian steroid hormones like estrogen and progesterone affect the brain? My lab explores the roles of these hormones in neural plasticity - or the capacity for change in the structure and function of brain circuitry.

Our work focuses primarily on the hippocampus, a part of the cerebral cortex that is normally involved in learning and memory and that can be a focus of seizure activity under abnormal conditions. We study how changing levels of estrogen and progesterone alter the way neurons in the hippocampus are physically connected to one another and how these physical changes can modify the flow of electrical activity through the hippocampus. We use a variety of brain imaging and electrophysiological recording techniques to understand the functional consequences of hormone-induced structural changes. Our findings may help to explain how hormones affect both normal cognitive processing as well as susceptibility to seizures.

e-mail Dr. Woolley
ph: 847.491.3025
fax: 847.491.5211

Selected References:

• Ledoux VA, Smejkalova T, May RM, Cooke BM and CS Woolley (2009) Estradiol facilitates the release of neuropeptide Y to suppress hippocampus-dependent seizures. Journal of Neuroscience. 29(5): 1457-68.

• Cooke BM, Woolley CS (2009) Effects of prepubertal gonadectomy on a male-typical behavior and excitatory synaptic transmission in the amygdala. Developmental Neurobiology 69(2-3): 141-52.

• Woolley CS (2007) Acute Effects of Estrogen on Neuronal Physiology. Annual Reviews of Pharmacology and Toxicology 47: 657-680. [Full Text]

• Yun SH, Park KA, Kwon S, Woolley CS, Sullivan PM, Pasternak JF, Trommer BL. (2007) Estradiol enhances long term potentiation in hippocampal slices from aged apoE4-TR mice. Hippocampus. 17(12):1153-7. [Full Text]

• Hart, S.A., Snyder, M.A., Smejkalova, T. and C.S. Woolley (2007) Estrogen mobilizes a subset of estrogen receptor-a-immunoreactive vesicles in inhibitory presynaptic boutons in hippocampal CA1. J. Neurosci., 27(8): 2102-2111. [Full Text]

• Cooke BM, Stokas MR, Woolley CS. (2007) Morphological sex differences and laterality in the prepubertal medial amygdala. J Comp Neurol. 501(6):904-15. [Full Text]

• Cooke, B.M. and C.S. Woolley (2005) Sexually dimorphic synaptic organization of the medial amygdala. J. Neurosci. 25(46): 10759-10767. [Full Text]

•Ledoux, V.L. and C.S. Woolley (2005) Evidence that disinhibition is associated with a decrease in number of vesicles available for release at inhibitory synapses. J. Neurosci. 25(4): 971-976. [Full Text]

Telgkamp P, Padgett DE, Ledoux VA, Woolley CS, Raman IM. (2004) Maintenance of high-frequency transmission at purkinje to cerebellar nuclear synapses by spillover from boutons with multiple release sites. Neuron. 41(1):113-26. [Full Text]

• Yankova, M., S.A. Hart and C.S. Woolley (2001) Estrogen increases synaptic connectivity between single presynaptic inputs and multiple postsynaptic CA1 pyramidal cells: a serial electron microscopic study. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA 98(6): 3525-3530. [Full Text]

Other Links:

• Link to detailed research description

• Center for Reproductive Science

• Endocrine Society

• Biological Imaging Facility (BIF)