Christine E. Collins

Research Assistant Professor of Psychology

Neuroscience

Office: 007 Wilson Hall
Phone: (615) 322-5132
Fax: (615) 343-8449
Email:

Degrees

Collins' research interests include the functional organization of sensory systems in mammals, the neural mechanisms of plasticity, and recovery of function following injury. Current work examines reorganization of extrastriate cortical maps in New World monkeys following damage to striate cortex or to extrastriate cortex. A combination of electrophysiological, neuroanatomical and optical imaging techniques are used to evaluate responsiveness of neurons in visual cortical areas and to map topographical organization. Related work aims to document connections between visual areas of the cortex and thalamus and describes cytoarchitectural and histochemical features of areas to gain a better understanding of the normal functional organization of the visual system in prosimian primates and New World and Old World monkeys. Data from multiple branches within the primate order provide insight into the evolution of sensory systems and allow us to identify features that may be unique to particular groups of primates, or features that are conserved across branches within the primate order and may be more likely to be present in humans.

C. E. Collins, A. E. Hendrickson and J. H. Kaas (2005) An overview of the visual system of Tarsius. The Anatomical Record, Part A, 287A:1013-1025.
C. E. Collins, D.C. Lyon and J. H. Kaas (2005) Surface-view distributions of neurons in cerebral cortex projecting to the superior colliculus in New World monkeys. The Anatomical Record, Part A, 285A:619-627.
D. C. Airey, A. I. Robbins, K. M. Enzinger, F. Wu and C. E. Collins (2005) Variation in the cortical area map of C57BL/6J and DBA/2J inbred mice predicts strain identity. BMC Neuroscience 6:18.
C. E. Collins, X. Xu, I. Khaytin, P. M. Kaskan, V. A. Casagrande and J. H. Kaas (2005) Optical imaging of visually evoked responses in MT after deactivation of V1 in adult New World and Prosimian primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A., 102 (15):5594-5599.
I. Stepniewska, C. E. Collins and J. H. Kaas (2005) Reappraisal of DL/V4 boundaries based on connectivity patterns of dorsolateral visual cortex in Macaques. Cerebral Cortex, 15:809-822.
X. Xu, C. E. Collins, P. M. Kaskan, I. Khaytin, J. H. Kaas and V. A. Casagrande (2004) Optical imaging of visually evoked responses in prosimian primates reveals conserved features of the middle temporal visual area. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A., 101(8):2566-2571.
C. E. Collins, D. Lyon and J. H. Kaas (2003) Responses of Neurons in MT after Long-standing lesions of V1 in adult New World monkeys. Journal of Neuroscience, 23(6):2251-2264.