HUMANS OF HBI

Olubusola O. Olukoya
Graduate Student, Lab of Lisa Goodrich
Harvard Medical School

photo of busola olukoya

I study how the ear gets wired to receive sound information from the environment. During development, many different cells need to get to the right place and make stereotyped connections in a precise manner for us to be able to hear. My research examines how two of these cell types, neurons and glia, interact in wiring the cochlea, the organ of hearing. Understanding how cochlea wiring is established during development will provide useful insight for therapies to treat or prevent hearing loss. 

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Community Stories

When Other People Feel Like “Robots”: The Detection of Automatic Behavior in Others
Have you ever had the sense that the person you’re talking to is just a “robot”? That they’re following some script without thinking about it? New research by Ilona Bass and Tomer Ullman examines the detection of automatic behavior in other people, finding it is a common and robust phenomenon across domains.
Excitement Over Dendritic Excitations
Neurons receive synaptic inputs all along their dendrites. Dendrites can produce electrical spikes, independent of the cell body. What are these excitations for? Park, Wong-Campos, and Cohen mapped the voltage throughout the dendrites of neurons and found that dendritic excitations were mostly triggered by specific patterns of spiking at the cell body – suggesting that the dendritic excitations play an important role in regulating synaptic plasticity.
The Development of Instincts at the Single Cell Level
A new study from Catherine Dulac and colleagues, first author Harris Kaplan explores how one small brain region called the preoptic area (POA) of the hypothalamus changes through early life in mice. Though tiny, the POA is a known hub for neurons that govern basic needs like thirst and hunger, as well as neurons that regulate social behavior.

Upcoming Events

In First-Person: Medical Disorders of Voluntary Action
April 9, 2025
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Location: Tosteson Medical Education Center (TMEC), Room 250
Featuring Alice Flaherty and Isabelle Chopin
Addiction 101
April 10, 2025
11:00 am to 12:00 pm
Location: Warren Alpert 563
Featuring Kathryn McHugh (McLean Hospital).