Chi-ming Huang
Associate Professor, MBB
Ph.D. University of California - Los Angeles
Office: 211 BSB
Phone: (816) 235-2582
E-mail: HuangC
Research Areas
Evolution neurobiology of the cerebellum
Current Interests
The cerebellum participates in the learning, acquisition, and execution of many motor and non-motor functions. It exerts its influences via extensive and region-specific connectivities with all areas of the brain. The cerebellar synaptic circuitry seems to be designed for learning and shows little variation throughout the entire cerebellar cortex. We have recently reported dramatic early-onset maturational changes in the number and distribution pattern of granule-cell-Purkinje-cell synapses in the rodent cerebellum, which amounts to a modification of synaptic circuitry. Early-onset events, including synaptic pruning, are often under strong selective pressure and therefore are biologically significant. Our limited comparative analyses suggest that these observed temporal changes may be universal and may reflect animal learning. Both the cerebellar circuitry and its maturational changes are constrained by selection pressure such that deviations may lead to severe consequences, including compromised role of cerebellum in learning and a resultant deficiency in adaptive behavioral response to selection pressure.
Although the role of cerebellum in learning and the role of adaptive behavior in evolution have been firmly established, the role of the cerebellum in those aspects considered unique in human learning and evolution is yet unclear. These questions include the contribution of the cerebellum to tool invention and usage, speech motor control, language and the manipulation of abstract symbols, and the most crucial periods in human learning. Many of these aspects are arguably unique to human culture and are the direct result of information processing. Information processing, therefore, may be a key element of human evolution and culture. At present, we are interested in (1) information coding in the cerebellum, (2) information processing in animals as required by their life histories, (3) the link between the maturational changes of the cerebellum and critical periods for learning, (4) the role of the cerebellum and information processing in the emergence of human culture, and (5) genes associated with information processing capacity of the brain. We have recently reported on methodological studies on the structural parameters of the cerebellum [Huang and Huang 2004, Wang et al 2007], brain information coding [Huang et al 2006a, Huang 2007], age-related changes in the cerebellum [Huang et al 2006b,c], and effects of ethanol on the cerebellum [Huang et al 2007].
