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Neurology Laboratory
Dr Youichirou (YoYo) Ootsuka, BSc, MSc, PhD ( Japan)
NHMRC Senior Research Officer
University of
Tsukuba , Japan: BSc (Biology) 1992, MSc (Medical Science) 1994,
PhD (Medical Science) 1998
I am a neuroscientist, with a background in biology, specializing
in neuroscience research as an electrophysiologist, focusing
particularly on brain control of autonomic function. I developed
a methodology to measure EEG and brown adipose tissue metabolism
in conscious unrestrained rats, utilizing techniques that have
enabled me to discover that increases in body metabolism, associated
with arousal patterns in the EEG, occur approximately every 100
minutes; a newly described ultradian rhythm. My area of expertise
is in the electrophysiological recording of axonal discharge
in sympathetic nerves supplying thermoregulatory cutaneous blood
vessels. In my previous laboratory, with Dr Robin McAllen (Howard
Florey Institute), I contributed to the discovery that the medullary
raphé is a lower brainstem thermoregulatory control centre.
With Prof Bill Blessing I have made a key contribution to demonstrating
that the inhibitory thermoregulatory properties of modern atypical
antipsychotic drugs depend on effects of these agents on the
brain, not on the peripheral thermo-effector organs. My collaborative
studies with Dr Andrej Romanovsky ( Phoenix, Arizona, USA), have
demonstrated that circulating prostaglandin E2 can act directly
on the brain to initiate the febrile response.
(Back to Neurology Laboratory)
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