Tim Viney

Research interests

My research focuses on how the coordinated activity of diverse kinds of neurons contributes to behaviour. I have a general interest in how different subcortical inputs to the hippocampus affect rhythmic network activity via their postsynaptic target neurons, and their impact on the processing of mnemonic functions including spatial navigation. I am currently investigating the synaptic circuit mechanisms for how several kinds of GABAergic neurons in the medial septum (part of the basal forebrain) implement rhythmic neuronal activity in the cortex, especially during theta network oscillations.

Biography

I carried out my PhD in the group of Dr Botond Roska at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel, where I studied neural circuits of the retina (2005-2010). I identified several types of ganglion cell in a transgenic mouse line based on two-photon targeted patch clamp recordings in wholemount retinas. I demonstrated that "approach sensitive" ganglion cells receive glycinergic inhibition from AII amacrine cells, and that dopaminergic interplexiform cells are presynaptic to a type of intrinsically photosensitive ganglion cell. Next I moved to Oxford as an MRC Career Development Fellow in the group of Professor Peter Somogyi at the MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit (2010-2012). Here I investigated the spike timing of identified GABAergic neurons in the CA1 region of the hippocampus in relation to different behavioural states. I also discovered a negative marker for axo-axonic cells, the transcription factor SATB1. In 2012, I became an MRC Investigator Scientist.

Keywords

Hippocampus, medial septum, GABAergic interneurons, pyramidal cells, theta oscillations, gamma oscillations, sharp wave ripples, entorhinal cortex.