From Mice, Rats and Men: Plasticity of Visuo-Tactile Cortical Maps

Think Humboldt!!!

Tactile information processing
in a mouse during whisker stimulation as in: George Page. The mind. Vol. 2, WNET New York (1988)
(Link below)
in a person with severe visual disability reading Braille as in: Don Colburn. The Infinite Brain. The Washington Post/Health (Sept. 28, 1999) (Link below)
and


Plans for la bobine as
in Brain Res 348
Peter Melzer
Research Assistant Professor of Psychology
Office: 604 Wilson Hall
Phone: (615) 322-4386
E-mail: peter.melzer@vanderbilt.edu


Links

More than 1 million Americans age 40 years and over are blind from eye disease. Another 2.3 million Americans are visually impaired and the numbers will double over the next 30 years for the baby boomer generation. Link

Raquel Agiar (1/15/2002) Identificados padrões de processamento da leitura em braile. Cérebro atua de forma distinta em cegos de nascença e com experiência visual prévia. Ciencia Hoje on-line
http://www.uol.com.br/cienciahoje

Article in Exploration:
Differences in brain usage among Braille readers shed new light on the relationship between thought and language

Link to BioMed News: http://www.biomednet.com

Article in BioMed news:
Early VS Late: Different Mechanisms for Braille Readers
http://www.biomednet.com/biomednews/1999/SFN/day5/story_5.html

George Page. The mind.Vol. 2, WNET New York (1988)
http://www.pbs.org/als/guide/courselistings/courses/mind/index.html

Don Colburn. The Infinite Brain. Washington Post/Health (Sept. 28, 1999)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/archives/

Go ski: http://www.uscd.org/

Support Education: http://www.stjo.org

Fight AIDS: http://www.mc.Vanderbilt.Edu/health/centers/aids.html

Conserve Nature: http://www.tnc.org/states/tennessee/

Eat Invisible Dishes: http://www.unsicht-bar.com/

The Invisible Bar: http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/atc/20011228.atc.09.ram


Education/Training
Institution and Location Degree Year Field of Study
J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany Diploma 1982 Zoology
J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany Ph.D. 1986 Zoology

Employment

Year Position/Department Employer
1986-1989 Visiting Assistant, Institute of Anatomy University of Lausanne,
Lausanne, Switzerland
1989-1992 Visiting Fellow, Laboratory of Cerebral
Metabolism		 National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD
1992-1994 Visiting Associate, Laboratory of Cerebral Metabolism National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD
1994-1995 Research Associate, Department of Psychology Vanderbilt University
1996-present Research Assistant Professor,
Department of Psychology		 Vanderbilt University



Honors
Year Honors Employer
1978-1979 Fulbright Fellowship University of Tennessee Knoxville
1980-1982 Hoechst AG Fellowship J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
1983-1986 Fellowships of the German National
Foundation and the European Neuroscience Foundation		 University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
1986-1989 Research Fellowship of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
1989-1992 Fogarty Fellowship of the National
Institutes of Health		 National Institute of Health



Selected Publications
#
Publications
1. Melzer P, Morgan VL, Pickens, DR, Price, RR, Wall, RS, Ebner FF (2001) Cortical activation during Braille reading is influenced by early visual experience in subjects with severe visual disability: A correlational fMRI study. Human Brain Mapping (in press).
2. Melzer P, Powers MK (2001) Metabolic activity in optic tectum during regeneration of retina in adult goldfish. Visual Neurosci. 18, 599-604. Article Link
3. Melzer, P., Savchenko, V., and McKanna, J.A. (2001) Microglia, astrocytes and macrophages react differentially to central and peripheral lesions in the developing and mature whisker-to-barrel pathway. A study using immnunohistochemistry for lipocortin1, phosphotyrosine, S100b and mannose receptors. Exp Neurol 168: 63-77. http://www.idealibrary.com/links/doi/10.1006/exnr.2000.7554
4. Gotoh J, Kuang T-Y, Nakao Y, Cohen DM, Melzer P, Itoh Y, Pak H, Pettigrew K, Sokoloff L (2001) Regional differences in mechanisms of cerebral circulatory response to neuronal activation. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 280: H821-H829.
http://ajpheart.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/280/2/H821
5. Melzer P, Smith CB (1995) Whisker follicle removal affects somatotopy and innervation of other follicles in adult mice. Cereb Cortex 5: 301-306.
6. Melzer P, Crane AM, Smith CB (1993) Mouse barrel cortex functionally compensates for deprivation produced by neonatal lesion of whisker follicles. Europ J Neurosci 5: 1638-1652.
7. Melzer P, Welker E, Dörfl J, Van der Loos H (1994) Maturation of neuronal metabolic responses to vibrissa stimulation in the developing whisker-to-barrel pathway of the mouse. Dev Brain Res 77: 227-250.
8. Melzer P, Steiner H (1997) Stimulus-dependent expression of immediate-early genes in rat somatosensory cortex. J Comp Neurol 380: 145-153.
9. Melzer P, Van der Loos H, Dörfl J, Welker E, Robert P, Emery D, Berrini J-Ch (1985) A magnetic device to stimulate selected whiskers of freely moving or re-strained small rodents: Its application in a deoxyglucose study. Brain Res 348: 229-240.
10. Welker E, Rao SB, Dörfl J, Melzer P, Van der Loos H (1992) Plasticity in the barrel cortex of the adult mouse: Effects of chronic stimulation upon deoxyglucose uptake in the behaving animal. J Neurosci 12: 153-170.
11. Melzer P (1985) Frequency-evoked deoxyglucose uptake in the auditory pathway of the CF/FM-bat Rhinolophus rouxi. Brain Res Bull 15: 677-681.
12. Melzer P (1984) The central auditory pathway of the gerbil Psammomys obesus: A deoxyglucose study. Hearing Res 15: 187-195.



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