S. R. Yeh Ph.D.
(Georgia State University, 1996)

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Assistant Professor
e-mail: sryeh@life.nthu.edu.tw

Research Interests

  1. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.
    My laboratory's interests are in the cell biology of learning and memory in zebrafish. The zebrafish is a useful vertebrate model for genetic studies of development. In addition, zebrafish also has levels of cognitive power appropriate to perform complex learning processes such as alarm reaction, an predator recognition learning. The Mauthner cells (M-cell) in fish can initiate a quick escape response that removes them from a dangerous situation and thereby contributes to survival. The M-cell receives afferent sensory inputs from a variety of sources including vision, lateral line, somatosensory, and auditory inputs. Sound is used to evoke the escape response, but nonauditory cues apparently trigger and guide the Mauthner-initiated behavior. Tetanic stimulation, based on the functional characteristics and firing pattern of the auditory fibers, can trigger an NMDA-dependent long-term potentiation (LTP) of the synaptic response of M-cell. This type of synaptic plasticity has received significant attention as a possible cellular mechanism of associative learning. Recently, Canfield and Rose reported that when sound stimuli were presented alone, goldfish avoid the direction of the sound. If a light preceding to the sound pulse, the performance of acoustic-evoked escape improved significantly. Thus, the Mauthner-initiated behavior in zebrafish provided the opportunity to investigate the learning process qualified as Pavlovian conditioning. I am interested in investigating whether Mauthner-mediated escape response of zebrafish are involved in more complex learning process, specifically sensory preconditioning and higher order conditioning (Pavlovian procedures that form learned associations by pairing initially neutral stimuli). Along with the behavioral study, I will investigate the learning-related morphological changes in the axon and dendrite of M-cell, and the roles of calcium/second messengers in the induction of LTP at the synapse onto M-cell. The techniques used are electrophysiology, immunocytochemistry, and pharmacology to determine the processes that mediate the induction and expression of long-term potentiation in M-cell.
  2. Neural Mechanisms of Behavioral Choice.
    My another research interests concern the neural networks and the neural mechanisms for behavioral choice. Studies on animal's behavior have shown that different behavior patterns of animal are mediated by discrete neuronal circuits. Inhibitory interactions occur between circuits that produce mutually exclusive behaviors. For example, in crayfish, the circuit that mediates backward walking inhibits the tailflip circuit, and vice-versa. However, inhibition is not the only mode of interaction because some behaviors can occur concurrently or sequentially. My lab is trying to extend the behavioral and electrophysiological studies to cover excitatory interactions between different neural systems. Using crayfish as a model animal, I am trying to develop a comprehensive understanding of the neural mechanisms of behavioral choice.

Representative publications

  • Wei, J-W and Yeh, S.-R. (1991). Effects of insulin on glucose uptake in cultured cells from the central nervous system of rodent. Int. J. Biochem. 23(9): 851-856.
  • Wei, J-W, Yeh, S.-R., and Wang, E.K. (1991). Evidence for the coupling of Muscarinic M3 receptor to cAMP formation and poly-phosphatidylinositol turnover in rat salivary glands. Chinese Journal of Physiology, 34(3): 303-315.
  • Edwards, D.H., Yeh, S-R, Barnett, L.D., and Nagappan, P.R. (1994) Changes in synaptic integration during the growth of the lateral giant neuron of crayfish. J. Neurophysiol. 72: 899- 908.
  • Edwards, D.H., Fricke, R.A., Barnett, L.D., Yeh, S.-R, and Leise, E.M. (1994) The onset of response habituation and the growth of the lateral giant neuron of crayfish. J. Neurophysiol. 72: 890-898.
  • Yeh, S.-R., Fricke, R.A. and Edwards, D.H. (1996) The effect of social experience on serotonergic modulation of the escape circuit of crayfish. Science. 271: 366- 369.
  • Yeh, S.-R., Musolf, B.E. and Edwards, D.H. (1997) Neural adaptations to changes in the social dominance status of crayfish. J. Neuroscience. 17: 697-708.
  • Edwards, D.H., Yeh, S.-R., Krasne, F.B. (1998) Neuronal coincidence detection by voltage-sensitive electrical synapse. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 95 (12):7145-7150.
  • Yeh, S.-R., and Glanzman, D. L. (1998) PTP of Aplysia sensorimotor synapses can exhibit an early phase that does not depend upon postsynaptic calcium. Soc. Neurosci. Abstr. 24: