• Electrophysiology
• Neuroanatomy (with many techniques)
• Electron Microscopy
• Computer Modeling

Pantodon buchholzi, the African butterfly fish, inhabits an ecological niche at the water surface in which its visual system must contend with simultaneous vision in water and through the surface into air. Specific structural adaptations correlating with the unusual demands of its visual ecology have been identified in this fish at the lens, retina, and throughout its visual system. Behaviorally, feeding by this fish is stereotyped in that it occurs nearly 100% of the time only when target prey float on or above the water surface, i.e., only from its aerial visual field. Since neural correlates of stereotyped behavior imply identified circuits in the nervous system, the feeding behavior of this fish suggests a unique circuit might be found somewhere in the aerial visual pathway. Currently, the focus of my lab is a search for neuronal differences and physiological interactions within the visual system that serve this behavior.

For complete list: PubMed

Hong, D., Saidel, W.M., Man, S. and Martin, J.V. (2006)
Extracellular noise-induced stochastic synchronization in heterogeneous quorum sensing network. J. Theor. Biol. 245: 726-736.

Hong, D., Martin, J.V. and Saidel, W.M. (2006)
The mechanism for stochastic resonance enhancement of mammalian auditory information processing. Theor Biol Med Model. 3:39.

Saidel, W.M., Shashar, N., Schmolesky, M.T. and Hanlon, R.T. (2005)
Discriminative responses of squid (Loligo pealeii) photoreceptors to polarized light. Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol. 142(3):340-6.

Butler, A.B. and Saidel, W.M. (2003)
Clustered phylogenetic distribution of nucleus rostrolateralis among ray-finned fishes. Brain Behav Evol. 62(3):152-67.

Saidel, W.M., Marquez-Houston, K., and Butler, A.B. (2001)
Identification of visual pallial telencephalon in the goldfish, Carassius auratus: a combined cytochrome oxidase and electrophysiological study. Brain Res. 919(1):82-93.

Butler, A.B. and Saidel, W.M. (2000)
Defining sameness: historical, biological, and generative homology.
BioEssays 22(9):846-53