Gender	Female
E-mail	elizabeth.cropper@mssm.edu
Education and Training	Ph.D., Mount Sinai School of Medicine
	Postdoctoral Training, Columbia University

Visit Dr. Elizabeth Cropper's Lab for more information.

Education and Training	Ph.D., Mount Sinai School of Medicine
	Postdoctoral Training, Columbia University

Many motor behaviors are mediated by central pattern generators (CPGs) that can generate rhythmic output without afferent input. Physiologically, however, CPGs often receive sensory information so that activity is adjusted to compensate for changes in the environment. When this occurs, changes in motor output are not always solely determined by stimulus properties. Instead peripherally and centrally generated activity is integrated so that stimulus-induced changes in motor output depend on the state of the ongoing motor program. Thus, afferent transmission can be regulated (i.e., gated) during rhythmic activity. Current experiments in our laboratory seek to determine how sensory and motor activity is integrated during feeding behavior in the marine mollusc Aplysia californica.  We study the regulation of afferent transmission using both electrophysiological and imaging techniques.

Visit Dr. Elizabeth Cropper's Lab for more information.

Evans CG, Kang T, Cropper EC. Selective spike propagation in the central processes of an invertebrate neuron. J Neurophysiol;-in press.

Evans CG, Ludwar BH, Cropper EC. Mechanoafferent neuron with an inexcitabile somatic region: consequences for the regulation of spike propagation and afferent transmission. J Neurophysiol 2007; 97(4): 3126-3130.

Lum CS, Zhurov Y, Cropper EC, Weiss KR, Brezina V. Variability of swallowing performance in intact, freely feeding aplysia. J Neurophysiol 2005 Oct; 94(4): 2427-2446.

Evans CG, Romero A, Cropper EC. Inhibition of afferent transmission in the feeding circuitry of Aplysia: persistence can be as important as size. J Neurophysiol 2005; 93(5): 2940-2949.

Cropper EC, Evans CG, Hurwitz I, Jing J, Proekt A, Romero A, Rosen SC. Feeding neural networks in the mollusc Aplysia. Neurosignals 2004; 13: 70-86.

Shetreat-Klein AN, Cropper EC. Afferent-induced changes in rhythmic motor programs in the feeding circuitry of Aplysia. J Neurophysiol 2004; 92(4): 2312-2322.

Jing J, Cropper EC, Hurwitz I, Weiss KR. The construction of movement with behavior-specific and behavior-independent modules. J Neurosci 2004; 24(28): 6315-6325.

Cropper EC, Evans CG, Jing J, Klein A, Proekt A, Romero A, Rosen SC. Regulation of afferent transmission in the feeding circuitry of Aplysia. Acta Biol. Hung 2004; 55: 211-220.

Evans C, Jing J, Proekt A, Rosen S, Cropper E. Frequency-dependent regulation of afferent transmission in the feeding circuitry of Aplysia. J Neurophsiol. 2003; 90: 3967-3977.

Evans C, Jing J, Rosen S, Cropper E. Regulation of spike initiation and propagation in an Aplysia sensory neuron: gating-in via central depolarization. J Neurosci. 2003 Apr 1; 23(7): 2920-2931.