Dr. Conny Kopp-Scheinpflug

Research Focus
Sudden silence—often used in horror films to build suspense—is a powerful biological signal that sharpens attention, heightens the senses, and prepares an individual for fight-or-flight responses. Throughout evolution, detecting threats early enough to react with fighting, fleeing, or freezing has been critical for survival. Acoustic cues, especially low-frequency sounds, can travel long distances and be detected even in complete darkness or during sleep. Just as the appearance of a new sound attracts attention, the disappearance of a sound or a sound component is also registered by the auditory system, signaling the arrival or departure of acoustic objects such as predators or conspecifics.
In the mammalian brain, we have identified neurons in the superior paraolivary nucleus (SPN) that actively encode the cessation of sound (Kopp-Scheinpflug et al., 2011). Although sound-offset responses have been observed throughout the auditory pathway (Kopp-Scheinpflug et al., 2018), their underlying mechanisms, their connectivity within a potential “offset pathway,” and their behavioral relevance remain unclear.
The aim of this summer project is to use a behavioral paradigm known as prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle reflex (ASR). In everyday life, PPI is an operational measure of sensorimotor gating—a crucial function of the central nervous system that prevents sensory information from overwhelming behavioral responses. In our experiments, different types of prepulses allow us to “ask” the mouse whether it perceived the prepulse (e.g. sudden silence)

Primary Techniques:
The student will primarily work with the PPI/ASR paradigm. Our laboratory also employs other methods, including evoked-potential recordings, in vivo single-cell recordings, and patch-clamp recordings in acute brain slices to investigate the mechanisms and functions of neural circuits that encode silence at sound offsets. The student is welcome to watch, learn and participate in any of those methods too.

Experimental Model:
Mouse

Specific Requests:
None. However, prior experience in physiology, handling experimental animals, or processing brain tissue would be advantageous.

Special note:
Over the past years, 75% of the lab's PhD students have been Amgen summer students.