University of Rochester Medical Center
SearchDirectoryNewsEventsStrong HealthURMC Home


PhD (1970)
University of Rochester
Carol K. Kellogg
  Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and of Pharmacology and Physiology

Primary Appointment:
  Brain and Cognitive Sciences

GEBS Cluster Affiliations:
  CRMP- Cell Regulation and Molecular Pharmacology
  NS - Neuroscience
 


Research:
  GABAA Receptor and Neural Development

Contact Information:
  E-Mail: kellogg@bcs.rochester.edu
University of Rochester
School of Medicine and Dentistry
601 Elmwood Ave, Box 603
Rochester, New York 14642
Medical Center [room]
Phone: (716) [tele]
Fax: (716) [number]
Research Overview
My primary research interests are in developmental neurochemistry and neuropharmacology. I am particularly interested in the role that specific transmitters and their receptors may play in organization of brain function. For the past several years, I have focused on the roles of GABA and the GABAA receptor in the organization of the brain for complex adaptive behaviors. GABA is the major inhibitory transmitter in adult mammalian brains and is difusely distributed. However, during early brain development, GABA has depolarizing actions, and trophic effects have been attributed to this substance. Using a variety of neurochemical, neuroanatomical, physiological and behavioral methods, we have evaluated the effect of early manipulation of the GABAA receptor on neural and behavioral development. We have found profound effects on a range of neural systems and adaptive responses of a kind that are often not apparent until late in adolescence (a developmental stage at which many clinical behavior disorders appear). Several questions have been generated by these observations, and these issues are currently being addressed:
  1. How do particular stressor-responsive systems change during adolescent development and what is the underlying trigger for the change?
  2. What responses are initiated in the brain at the time of manipulation of GABAA receptors; in particular, does manipulations of this receptor complex during in utero development affect specific trophic factors?
  3. How do gonadal steroids interact with GABAA receptors at different stages of development?
Recent Publications
Kellogg, C.K. (1998).
Early developmental modulations of GABAA receptor function: Influence on adaptive responses, Perspectives on Developmental Neurobiology, 5:219-234.
Kellogg, C.K., Awatramani, G.B., and Piekut, D.T. (1998).
Adolescent development alters stressor-induced fos immunoreactivity in rat brain, Neuroscience, 83:681-689.
Kellogg, C.K., Olson, V.G., Pleger, G.L. (1998).
Neurosteroid action at the GABAA receptor in fetal rat forebrain, Developmental Brain Research, 108:131-137.
Kellogg, C.K., 1995. 
Perinatal benzodiazepine modulation of GABAA receptor function: Influence on adaptive responses. In: Biological Mechanisms and Perinatal Exposure to Drugs (P.V. Thodani, ed.), NIDA Research Monograph, 158: 202-226. 
Kellogg, C.K., J.R. Inglefield, M.K. Taylor, Pleger, G.L., 1993. 
Importance of hypothalamic function to stressor-induced responsiveness of the GABAA receptor in the cerebral cortex: A non-corticosterone influence. Brain Res., 609: 244-252. 



Back to Brain and Cognitive Sciences

GEBS Clusters:
CRMP

NS