Jacob Bollinger, Ph.D.

Address:
UCSF MC 2512
Mission Bay – Byers Hall Room 102C
1700 4th Street
San Francisco, CA 94158-2330

email: jacob.gazzlab@gmail.com
lab: 415-476-2164
fax: 415-514-4451

Curriculum Vitae (.pdf)
       
Biography:  Jacob was born in Crescent City, California and was raised in the Bay Area.  In 1999, he received his bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of California, San Diego.  While at UCSD, he worked with Sascha du Lac and Bryce Vissel (Heinemann Lab) to develop a transgenic mouse line for the electrophysiological examination of the vestibulo-occular reflex.  Meanwhile, he was captain of the UCSD varsity men's soccer team.  In late 2006, Jacob received his doctorate in neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco.  Under the mentorship of  Michael Merzenich, he studied the effects of chronic stimulus-paired locus coeruleus activity on response properties of primary auditory cortical neurons. In September 2007, Jacob joined the Gazzaley lab at the UCSF Mission Bay campus. His research will focus on mechanisms of preparation, attention, and working memory load.

Research Description: Stimulus-preceding neural activity is known to be modulated by knowledge of task rules.  Anticipation or expectation of an impending stimulus can increase cognitive performance by an advance activation of neural mechanisms that are predicted to be involved in an ensuing behavioral task.  These mechanisms are likely driven by top-down influences.  In other words, these effects are driven by attentional processes rather than the specific characteristics of the stimuli.  Jacob's work will focus on further characterizing the processes associated with anticipation and how they are altered during aging.

Publications:

*Bollinger, J., Masangkay, E., Zanto, T.P. & Gazzaley, A. (2009) Age differences in N170 amplitude modulation by selective attention and working memory load. Society For Neuroscience (SFN), 2009. (.pdf)

*Bollinger, J., Masangkay, E., Zanto, T.P. & Gazzaley, A. (2009) N170 amplitude modulation by selective attention and working memory load. Abstract. Bay Area Memory Meeting (BAMM), 2009.

*Bollinger, J., Gazzaley, A. (2009) Neural evidence of an anticipatory deficit in cognitive aging. (In revision)

*Bollinger, J., Merzenich, M.M. (2009) Adult auditory cortical plasticity modulated by locus coeruleus activity.  J Neurophysiol. (In revision)

*Bollinger, J., Tecott, L.H. (2009) The influence of age-related hearing loss on development of audiogenic seizures in 5-HT2C receptor knockout C57BL/6J mice. (In preparation)

*Bollinger, J., Gazzaley, A. (2008) Pre-stimulus alpha power reflects anticipation of both stimulus category for complex objects and task goals. Abstract. Society For Neuroscience (SFN), 2008.

*Bollinger, J., Gazzaley, A. (2008) Pre-stimulus alpha synchronization reflects anticipation of stimulus category for complex objects. Abstract. Bay Area Memory Meeting (BAMM), 2008.

*Bollinger J. & Gazzaley A. (2008) Cortical alpha as a pre-stimulus top-down mechanism
for anticipatory suppression of irrelevant information for complex objects. Abstract, Society for Neuroscience 2008 (.pdf)

*Bollinger J. (2006) Thesis: Adult Auditory Cortical Plasticity Modulated by Locus Coeruleus Activity.

Sekirnjak C, Vissel B, Bollinger JJ, Faulstich M, and du Lac S (2003) Purkinje Cell Synapses Target Physiologically Unique Brainstem Neurons.    J Neurosci. 23(15): 6392-6398. (.pdf)