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:

• Woolley, C.S. (2007) Acute Effects of Estrogen on Neuronal Physiology. Annual Reviews of Pharmacology and Toxicology 47: 657-680.

• 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.

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

• 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.

• 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.

Other Links:

• link to detailed research description

• Center for Reproductive Science

• Endocrine Society

• Biological Imaging Facility (BIF)