Sarah Pallas
Associate Professor
Research areas include:
Neurotherapeutics
Development and plasticity of sensory encoding circuits in the brain
Localized and prolonged delivery of drugs to the brain
Current Research
Understanding and promoting recovery from brain injury (rodent models).Role of spontaneous and visually-driven activity in shaping neural circuits in the visual pathway. Influence of ecological niche and phylogeny on the role of neural activity in development and plasticity of receptive field properties.
Academic Background
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1988-92 MIT, Postdoc in Neural and Cog. Sci with Mriganka Sur
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1987 Cornell University, Ph.D. in Neurobiology with Barbara Finlay
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1981 Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, Neural Systems and Behavior summer course
- 1980 Iowa State University, M.S. magna cum laude in Zoology with Charles Drewes
- 1977 University of Minnesota, B.S. summa cum laude in Biology with William Schmid
Mudd, D.B., T.S. Balmer, S.Y. Kim, N. Machhour, S.L. Pallas (2019) TrkB
activation during a critical period mimics the protective effects of early
visual experience on the stability of receptive fields in adult superior
colliculus. J. Neurosci.39: 4475-4488.
Cheng, Q., M.D. Graves, S.L. Pallas (2019) Dynamic alterations of retinal
EphA5 expression in retinocollicular map plasticity. Devel. Neurobiol.
79:252-267.
Balmer, TS, SL Pallas (2015) Visual experience prevents dysregulation of
GABAB receptor-dependent short-term depression in adult superior colliculus.
J. Neurophysiol. 113: 2049-2061.
Balmer, T.S., S.L. Pallas (2015; epub 2013) Refinement but not maintenance
of receptive fields in both superior colliculus and visual cortex is
independent of visual experience. Cerebral Cortex 25: 904-917.
Mao, Y.-T, S.L. Pallas (2013) Cross-modal plasticity results in increased
inhibition in primary auditory cortical areas. Neural Plasticity 2013:
article ID 530651
Tadesse, T., Q. Cheng, M. Xu, D.J. Baro, L.J. Young, S.L. Pallas (2013)
Regulation of ephrin-A expression in compressed retinocollicular maps.
Devel. Neurobiol. 73: 274-296.
Mao, Y.-T, S.L. Pallas (2012) Compromise of auditory cortical tuning and
topography after cross-modal invasion by visual inputs. J. Neurosci. 32:
10338-10351.
Mao, Y.-T, T.-M. Hua, S.L. Pallas (2011) Competition and convergence between
auditory and cross-modal visual inputs to primary auditory cortical areas. J.
Neurophysiol. 105: 1558-1573.
Carrasco, M.M., Y.-T. Mao, T. Balmer, S.L. Pallas (2011) Inhibitory
plasticity underlies visual deprivation-induced loss of receptive field
refinement in adulthood. Eur. J. Neurosci. 33: 58-68.
Razak, K.A., S.L. Pallas (2007) Inhibitory plasticity facilitates recovery
of stimulus velocity tuning in the superior colliculus after chronic NMDA
receptor blockade. J. Neurosci. 27: 7275-7283.
