Adele M H Seelke, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher
University of California, Davis
Center for Neuroscience
1544 Newton Court
Davis, CA 95618

Ph.D., University of Iowa, Psychology, 2007
M.A., University of Iowa, Psychology, 2003
B.S., University of Missouri – Rolla (now Missouri University of  Science and Technology), Psychology cum laude, 2001

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My primary research focus is examining how the organization of the cortex emerges across the process of development, and how that organization differs between species with different developmental trajectories. In particular, I am interested in the development of primary somatosensory cortex (S1), which is somatotopically organized and processes proprioceptive and touch information from throughout the body.

The question of S1 development in mammals, such as rats, is very interesting for several reasons. Infant rats are highly precocial mammals. In fact, at the day of birth their cortex has yet to finish developing. Furthermore, infant rats grow at a tremendous rate over the first two postnatal weeks (see figure), with the spatial relationship between individual body parts rapidly changing over that time period. Together, these two factors allow us to examine how a cortical field is built and organized, and how it integrates changing information about body morphology.

Therefore, in my experiments I examine the developmental organization of S1 in 5-day-old through 15-day-old rats using eletrophysiological mapping and neuroanatomical tracing techniques. Ultimately, I hope to examine how anatomical changes in S1 and primary motor cortex (M1) are related to behavioral changes that manifest over the same time period.

Publications:

Journal Articles:
Seelke, A. M. H. and Blumberg, M. S. (in preparation). Transient developmental expression of neocortical sharp potentials before the emergence of delta activity.

Seelke, A. M. H. and Blumberg, M. S. (2008). The microstructure of active and quiet sleep as cortical delta activity emerges in infant rats. Sleep 31 (5), 691-699.

Blumberg, M. S., Karlsson, K. Æ. and Seelke, A. M. H. (2007). Sleep, development, and human health. Sleep. 30 (5), 547-548.

Blumberg, M. S., Seelke, A. M. H., Lowen, S. B. and Karlsson, K. Æ. (2005). Dynamics of sleep-wake cyclicity in developing rats. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 102, 14860-14864.

Seelke, A. M. H., Karlsson, K. Æ., Gall, A. J. and Blumberg, M. S. (2005). Extraocular muscle activity, rapid eye movements, and the development of active and quiet sleep. European Journal of Neuroscience. 22, 911-920.

Karlsson, K. Æ., Gall, A. J., Mohns, E. J., Seelke, A. M. H. and Blumberg, M. S. (2005).  The neural substrates of infant sleep. PLoS Biology, 3, 891-901.

Seelke, A. M. H. & Blumberg, M. S. (2005). Thermal and nutritional modulation of sleep in infant rats. Behavioral Neuroscience, 119, 603-611.

Blumberg, M. S., Karlsson, K. Æ., Seelke, A. M. H, & Mohns, E. (2005). The ontogeny of mammalian sleep: A response to Frank and Heller (2003). Journal of Sleep Research, 14, 91-101.

Seelke, A. M. H. & Blumberg, M. S. (2004) Sniffing in infant rats in sleep and wakefulness. Behavioral Neuroscience, 118, 267-273.

Chapters:
Blumberg, M. S. and Seelke, A. M. H. (in press). The form and function of infant  sleep: From muscle to neocortex. The Oxford Handbook of Developmental and Comparative Neuroscience. Blumberg, M. S., Freeman, J. H., and Robinson, S. R., eds. Oxford University Press.

Seelke, A. M. H. (2004). “The blood-brain barrier.” The Encyclopedia of Health Psychology. Editors: Christensen, A., Martin, R., and Smythe, J.  Kluwer Publishing, New York.