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Faculty Detail    
Name TIMOTHY J GAWNE
  
Campus Address HPB 514 Zip 0010
Phone  (205) 934-5495
E-mail  TGawne@gmail.com
Other websites http://www.vsrc.uab.edu/tgawne/Gawne_Web_Page/Welcome.html
     


Faculty Appointment(s)
Appointment Type Department Division Rank
Primary  Dept of Optometry & Vision Science  Dept of Optometry & Vision Science Professor
Secondary  Biomedical Engineering  Biomedical Engineering Assistant Professor
Center  Civitan International Research Center  Civitan International Research Center Professor
Center  Comprehensive Neuroscience Center  Comprehensive Neuroscience Center Professor
Center  Ctr for Clinical & Translational Sci  Ctr for Clinical & Translational Sci Professor
Center  Ctr for Dev Func Imaging (CDFI) (Org-Ret)  Ctr for Dev Func Imaging (CDFI) (Org-Ret) Professor
Center  Minority Health & Research Center  Minority Health & Research Center Professor

Graduate Biomedical Sciences Affiliations
Medical Scientist Training Program 
Neuroscience 
Neuroscience Graduate Program 

Biographical Sketch 
Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1978 Ph.D. In Physiology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 1984 WORK HISTORY: March 1978 August 1979, worked as a software engineer at the Large Computer Group of Digital Equipment Corp. in Marlboro, MA. September 1979 October 1984. Graduate student at the Department of Physiology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, MD. November 1984 August 1986. Post doctoral position in the department of Medicine, USUHS. Project was on myocardial and coronary involvement in hemorrhagic shock. Extensive experience in cardio thoracic surgery and in maintenance of animals with chronically implanted cardiac instrumentation. Designed, built and validated a ventricular impedance catheter superior to commercially existing units, and utilizing new principles of operation. September 1986 1988, Physiologist, and 1988 to August 1996, Staff Fellow, in the Laboratory of Neuropsychology, NIMH. Recording from single units and small numbers of single units in awake behaving primates in several areas of the visual system. September 1996 - Present: Assistant/Associate professor in the Department of Optometry and Vision Science , School of Optometry, in the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Work on both neural mechanisms of emmetropization (myopia), and also magneto-encephalographic explorations of human brain dynamics.

Society Memberships
Organization Name Position Held Org Link
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)    http://www.arvo.org 
Society for Neuroscience (SFN)    http://www.sfn.org 
 



Research/Clinical Interest
Title
Information Processing in the Central Nervous System
Description
I am primarily interested in how information is processed and transmitted in the nervous system. Currently I have two major research areas: 1. Myopia. As a human grows to adulthood, the developing eyes will evaluate their focus and generally try to regulate their growth to achieve clear vision. This process - called emmetropization - is regulated by the neural circuits inside the retina itself without the involvement of the brain. When it goes wrong, we get myopia, which is becoming epidemic. I am studying the visual cues that regulate this process using a model the tree shrew, small diurnal mammals closely related to primates. Magnetoencephalography (MEG). MEG is similar to the more commonly used EEG, but detects the small magnets fields generated by the neurons in the cerebral cortex. I use this to study brain dynamics and information processing in both normal human subjects, as well as in patients with schizophrenia and epilepsy.

Selected Publications 
Publication PUBMEDID
The responses of V1 cortical neurons to flashed presentations of orthogonal single lines and edges.
Gawne TJ.
J Neurophysiol. 2015 Apr 1;113(7):2676-81. doi: 10.1152/jn.00940.2014. 		 25673742 
The wavelength composition and temporal modulation of ambient lighting strongly affect refractive development in young tree shrews.
Gawne TJ, Siegwart JT Jr, Ward AH, Norton TT.
Exp Eye Res. 2016 Dec 12. pii: S0014-4835(16)30306-2. doi: 10.1016/j.exer.2016.12.004. [Epub ahead of print] 		 27979713 
Attention influences single unit and local field potential response latencies in visual cortical area V4.
Sundberg KA, Mitchell JF, Gawne TJ, Reynolds JH.
J Neurosci. 2012 Nov 7;32(45):16040-50. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0489-12.2012. 		 23136440 
Ocular convergence deficits in schizophrenia.
Bolding MS, Lahti AC, Gawne TJ, Hopkins KB, Gurler D, Gamlin PD.
Front Psychiatry. 2012;3:86. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2012.00086. Epub 2012 Oct 17. 		 23087652 
Magnetic transfer contrast accurately localizes substantia nigra confirmed by histology.
Bolding MS, Reid MA, Avsar KB, Roberts RC, Gamlin PD, Gawne TJ, White DM, den Hollander JA, Lahti AC.
Biol Psychiatry. 2013 Feb 1;73(3):289-94. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.07.035. Epub 2012 Sep 12 		 22981657 
Short-time scale dynamics in the responses to multiple stimuli in visual cortex.
Gawne TJ.
Front Psychol. 2011;2:323. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00323. Epub 2011 Nov 8. 		 22073039 
Gawne, T.J., Osbourne, T.S., and Risner, M.L. Robust sensory gating in the cortical visual evoked potential to two spatially separated stimuli. J. Clin. Neurophysiol. In press.  20709595 
Risner, M.L., Amthor, F.R., and Gawne, T.J. The response dynamics of rabbit retinal ganglion cells to simulated blur. Visual Neuroscience 27: 43-55, 2010.   20394681 
Gawne, T.J. The Local and Non-Local Components of the Local Field Potential in Awake Primate Visual Cortex. The Journal of Computational Neuroscience, 2010.
DOI: 10.1007/s10827-010-0223-x  20180148 
Risner, M.L., and Gawne, T.J. The response dynamics of primate visual cortical neurons to simulated optical blur. Visual Neuroscience 26: 411-420, 2009.  19706205 
Risner, M.L., Aura, C.J., Black, J.E., and Gawne, T.J. The visual evoked potential is independent of surface alpha rhythm phase. Neuroimage 45: 463-469, 2009.  19159692 
Gawne, T.J. Stimulus selection via differential response latencies in visual cortical area V4. Neuroscience Letters, 435: 198-203, 2008.
 		 18355960 
 

Keywords
EEG, MEG, myopia, schizophrenia, cerebral cortex, vision, retina