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Daniel Powell

Affiliation: Biology, Neuroscience
Assistant Professor of Biology and Neuroscience

The goal of my current research is to understand how neural circuits are able to flexibly produce a variety of outputs from the same set of underlying neurons and how they maintain functionality when stressed with naturally occurring environmental perturbations. We use two well-defined nervous systems found within crabs and lobsters, meaning that we know the precise connections between the neurons in each circuit of interest. Each nervous system contains at least one central pattern generator meaning that these circuits rhythmically produce stereotyped motor patterns without the need for exogenous input. Because we know how the neurons in these circuits synapse with one another, and because these circuits generate known behaviors, we can understand how experimental manipulations to the circuit's physiology would impact those behaviors.

Daniel Powell headshot

Education

  • PhD, Brandeis University
  • BS, University of Texas
(207) 725-3000