University of St Andrews
 
 

note: this person is a member of the
School of Psychology and Neuroscience

Dr Wenchang Li
Royal Society University Research Fellow

Bute Building
University of St Andrews
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9TS
UK

My research uses young Xenopus laevis tadpoles as a simple model system in which to study the basic neuronal mechanisms controlling animal locomotion, in this case, swimming. The tadpole spinal cord and hindbrain are simple and highly accessible, making it an ideal place to investigate rules that may be common to the movements of different animal species. I’m also interested in how these mechanisms mature during neural development. For more details please visit my previous lab webpage http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/research/neuro/xgroup.htm.

Lab members:

Nicola Porter: PhD student funded by BBSRC. http://biology.st-andrews.ac.uk/staffProfile.aspx?sunID=njp29

Peter Moult: Research fellow funded by Wellcome Trust.

 

 

Publications

Moult, PR , Cottrell, GA & Li, W 2013, ' Fast silencing reveals a lost role for reciprocal inhibition in locomotion ' Neuron , vol 77, no. 1, pp. 129-140.
Li, W & Moult, PR 2012, ' The control of locomotor frequency by excitation and inhibition ' The Journal of Neuroscience , vol 32, no. 18, pp. 6220-6230.
Roberts, A , Li, W & Soffe, S 2012, ' A functional scaffold of CNS neurons for the vertebrates: The developing Xenopus laevis spinal cord (review) ' Developmental Neurobiology , vol 72, no. 4, pp. 575-584.
Li, W 2011, ' Generation of Locomotion Rhythms Without Inhibition in Vertebrates: The Search for Pacemaker Neurons (review) ' Integrative and Comparative Biology , vol 51, no. 6, pp. 879-889.
Li, W , Roberts, A & Soffe, S 2010, ' Specific Brainstem Neurons Switch Each Other into Pacemaker Mode to Drive Movement by Activating NMDA Receptors ' The Journal of Neuroscience , vol 30, no. 49, pp. 16609-16620.
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