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Ole Kiehn | |
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 Danish - Swedish neuroscientist | |
| Born | 1958 (age 65–66) |
| Nationality | Danish-Swedish |
| Occupation(s) | Neuroscientist and professor |
Ole Kiehn (born 1958) is a Danish-Swedish neuroscientist. [1] He is Professor of Integrative Neuroscience at the Department of Neuroscience, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and professor of neurophysiology at Karolinska Institute, Sweden. [2] [3]
Ole Kiehn is born 1958 in Nakskov, Denmark. He earned his medical degree in 1985 and his Doctorate in Science (D.Sci.) in 1990, both from University of Copenhagen, Denmark. [1]
From 1985-89 Kiehn worked as a research associate at the Institute of Neurophysiology, University of Copenhagen. [1] He spent 1989-90 working as a Postdoc at the Section of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University, US, before returning to Denmark to become a group leader at the Institute of Neurophysiology at University of Copenhagen (1991–95). From 1995 to 2000, he was employed as a Hallas Møller Research Fellow at Department of Physiology, University of Copenhagen, and in 1997 he became associate professor at the same place, a position that he held until he was recruited to Karolinska Institute in Sweden in 2001. Since 2004, Ole Kiehn is working as professor in neuroscience at the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institute. From 2003 to 2011 he was deputy chair of the Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute. In 2008 Kiehn became a member of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute and after serving as an adjunct member from 2011–14, he was elected as a member of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine in 2014 to 2019. [4] From 2024 - 2026 Ole Kiehn serves as President of FENS - Federation of European Neuroscience Societies.
Since 2017, Ole Kiehn is also employed as professor in Integrative Neuroscience at the Department of Neuroscience, University of Copenhagen. Since 2019, Kiehn is co-editor in chief of Current Opinion in Neurobiology. [5]
Kiehn has published over 120 original papers and reviews and his work has been reported in scientific journals, including Nature (journal), Science (journal), Cell (journal), Nature Neuroscience, Neuron (journal), PNAS, Nature Reviews Neuroscience among others. Kiehn’s work has elucidated the functional organization of neuronal circuits controlling movement. In his initial work he showed that vertebrate motor neurons can express transmitter-modulated plateau potentials. [6] His continued work has shown an involvement of plateaux in disturbed motor symptoms seen after spinal cord injury. [7] Using molecular mouse genetic, electrophysiology and behavioral studies he has revealed the key cellular organization of spinal locomotor networks and was able to functionally discover and link specific neuronal populations in the spinal cord to the ability to produce the alternating movements between limbs during locomotion [8] [9] [10] [11] and to set the rhythm of locomotion. [12] [13] Kiehn has also discovered specific populations of excitatory brainstem neurons that mediate the episodic control of locomotion: the start and stop of locomotion as well as turning. [12] [14] [15] These studies unravel the communication pathway between the brain and the spinal cord needed to control the expression of locomotion.
A motor neuron is a neuron whose cell body is located in the motor cortex, brainstem or the spinal cord, and whose axon (fiber) projects to the spinal cord or outside of the spinal cord to directly or indirectly control effector organs, mainly muscles and glands. There are two types of motor neuron – upper motor neurons and lower motor neurons. Axons from upper motor neurons synapse onto interneurons in the spinal cord and occasionally directly onto lower motor neurons. The axons from the lower motor neurons are efferent nerve fibers that carry signals from the spinal cord to the effectors. Types of lower motor neurons are alpha motor neurons, beta motor neurons, and gamma motor neurons.
The development of the nervous system, or neural development (neurodevelopment), refers to the processes that generate, shape, and reshape the nervous system of animals, from the earliest stages of embryonic development to adulthood. The field of neural development draws on both neuroscience and developmental biology to describe and provide insight into the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which complex nervous systems develop, from nematodes and fruit flies to mammals.
The grey column refers to a somewhat ridge-shaped mass of grey matter in the spinal cord. This presents as three columns: the anterior grey column, the posterior grey column, and the lateral grey column, all of which are visible in cross-section of the spinal cord.
Central pattern generators (CPGs) are self-organizing biological neural circuits that produce rhythmic outputs in the absence of rhythmic input. They are the source of the tightly-coupled patterns of neural activity that drive rhythmic and stereotyped motor behaviors like walking, swimming, breathing, or chewing. The ability to function without input from higher brain areas still requires modulatory inputs, and their outputs are not fixed. Flexibility in response to sensory input is a fundamental quality of CPG-driven behavior. To be classified as a rhythmic generator, a CPG requires:
The preBötzinger complex, often abbreviated as preBötC, is a functionally and anatomically specialized site in the ventral-lateral region of the lower medulla oblongata. The preBötC is part of the ventral respiratory group of respiratory related interneurons. Its foremost function is to generate the inspiratory breathing rhythm in mammals. In addition, the preBötC is widely and paucisynaptically connected to higher brain centers that regulate arousal and excitability more generally such that respiratory brain function is intimately connected with many other rhythmic and cognitive functions of the brain and central nervous system. Further, the preBötC receives mechanical sensory information from the airways that encode lung volume as well as pH, oxygen, and carbon dioxide content of circulating blood and the cerebrospinal fluid.
A glial scar formation (gliosis) is a reactive cellular process involving astrogliosis that occurs after injury to the central nervous system. As with scarring in other organs and tissues, the glial scar is the body's mechanism to protect and begin the healing process in the nervous system.
Sten Grillner is a Swedish neurophysiologist and distinguished professor at the Karolinska Institute's Nobel Institute for Neurophysiology in Stockholm where he is the director of that institute. He is considered one of the world's foremost experts in the cellular bases of motor behaviour. His research is focused on understanding the cellular bases of motor behaviour; in particular, he has shown how neuronal circuits in the spine help control rhythmic movements, such as those needed for locomotion. He is the current secretary general of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) and president of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS). For his work, in 2008 he was awarded the $1 million Kavli Prize for deciphering the basic mechanisms which govern the development and functioning of the networks of cells in the brain and spinal cord. This prize distinguish the recipient from the Nobel prizes in basic medical sciences.
In cellular neuroscience, chromatolysis is the dissolution of the Nissl bodies in the cell body of a neuron. It is an induced response of the cell usually triggered by axotomy, ischemia, toxicity to the cell, cell exhaustion, virus infections, and hibernation in lower vertebrates. Neuronal recovery through regeneration can occur after chromatolysis, but most often it is a precursor of apoptosis. The event of chromatolysis is also characterized by a prominent migration of the nucleus towards the periphery of the cell and an increase in the size of the nucleolus, nucleus, and cell body. The term "chromatolysis" was initially used in the 1940s to describe the observed form of cell death characterized by the gradual disintegration of nuclear components; a process which is now called apoptosis. Chromatolysis is still used as a term to distinguish the particular apoptotic process in the neuronal cells, where Nissl substance disintegrates.
The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue that extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone) of vertebrate animals. The center of the spinal cord is hollow and contains a structure called the central canal, which contains cerebrospinal fluid. The spinal cord is also covered by meninges and enclosed by the neural arches. Together, the brain and spinal cord make up the central nervous system.
Spinal locomotion results from intricate dynamic interactions between a central program in lower thoracolumbar spine and proprioceptive feedback from body in the absence of central control by brain as in complete spinal cord injury (SCI). Following SCI, the spinal circuitry below the lesion site does not become silent; rather, it continues to maintain active and functional neuronal properties, although in a modified manner.
Uwe Windhorst is a German neuroscientist, systems scientist and cyberneticist, who was born in Bremen, Germany in 1946. Windhorst became known for his pioneer research in the use of diverse methods of correlation, spectral analysis as well as nonlinear systems analysis to describe the dynamic properties of signal transmission through small neuronal networks assessed in experimental animals.
Central pattern generators are biological neural networks organized to produce any rhythmic output without requiring a rhythmic input. In mammals, locomotor CPGs are organized in the lumbar and cervical segments of the spinal cord, and are used to control rhythmic muscle output in the arms and legs. Certain areas of the brain initiate the descending neural pathways that ultimately control and modulate the CPG signals. In addition to this direct control, there exist different feedback loops that coordinate the limbs for efficient locomotion and allow for the switching of gaits under appropriate circumstances.
Silvia Arber is a Swiss neurobiologist. She teaches and researches at both the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel Switzerland.
A spinal interneuron, found in the spinal cord, relays signals between (afferent) sensory neurons, and (efferent) motor neurons. Different classes of spinal interneurons are involved in the process of sensory-motor integration. Most interneurons are found in the grey column, a region of grey matter in the spinal cord.
The Golgi tendon organ (GTO) is a proprioceptor – a type of sensory receptor that senses changes in muscle tension. It lies at the interface between a muscle and its tendon known as the musculotendinous junction also known as the myotendinous junction. It provides the sensory component of the Golgi tendon reflex.
The mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR) is a functionally defined area of the midbrain that is associated with the initiation and control of locomotor movements in vertebrate species.
Lorne Mendell is a neurobiologist currently employed as a distinguished professor in the department of neurobiology and behavior at Stony Brook University in New York. His research focuses primarily on neurotrophins in neonatal and adult mammals, and on the neuroplasticity of the mammalian spinal cord. His research interests lie in other areas including pain, nerve wind-up, and specifically the neurotrophin NT-3. He has contributed to the growing pool of knowledge of axonal development and regeneration of immature and mature neurons. He has been a part of the search for novel treatments for spinal cord injuries and continues to study neurotrophins to determine their effects on neuronal plasticity. He served a term as president of the Society of Neuroscience during 1997–1998.
Sandra M. Garraway is a Canadian-American neuroscientist and assistant professor of physiology in the Department of Physiology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. Garraway is the director of the Emory Multiplex Immunoassay Core (EMIC) where she assists researchers from both academia and industry to perform, analyze, and interpret their multiplexed immunoassays. Garraway studies the neural mechanisms of spinal nociceptive pain after spinal cord injury and as a postdoctoral researcher she discovered roles for both BDNF and ERK2 in pain sensitization and developed novel siRNA technology to inhibit ERK2 as a treatment for pain.
Claire Julie Liliane Wyart is a French neuroscientist and biophysicist, studying the circuits underlying the control of locomotion. She is a chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite.
A descending neuron is a neuron that conveys signals from the brain to neural circuits in the spinal cord (vertebrates) or ventral nerve cord (invertebrates). As the sole conduits of information between the brain and the body, descending neurons play a key role in behavior. Their activity can initiate, maintain, modulate, and terminate behaviors such as locomotion. Because the number of descending neurons is several orders of magnitude smaller than the number of neurons in either the brain or spinal cord/ventral nerve cord, this class of cells represents a critical bottleneck in the flow of information from sensory systems to motor circuits.
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