Christopher L. Passaglia, PhD

Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Visual Information Processing Laboratory

Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience, Syracuse University
B.S., Biomedical Engineering, University of Iowa
Curriculum Vitae

Phone: (617) 358-0254
Email: psagls@bu.edu

Office: LSEB 203
Office hours: M 12-2

Research Interests

Visual information processing and transmission; retinal physiology in normal and diseased states; computational models of neural coding, visual prostheses.

Current Research

Dr. Passaglia’s research focuses on how visual information is represented in the eye’s input to the brain and how the representation changes as diseases, like glaucoma, inflict damage upon the retina. His laboratory tackles these issues by recording the electrical activity of neurons, visualizing neurons with anatomical stains, building computer models of the mechanisms that shape neural responses, and relating neural performance to visual behavior.

Selected Recent Publications

Freeman DK, Passaglia CL. “Luminance adaptation to low-contrast stimuli in retinal ganglion cells” J Neurophysiol. 104: 704-12. PMID: 20538771. (2010)

Freeman DF, Heine WF, Passaglia CL. “Single-unit in vivo recordings from the optic chiasm of rat” J Vis Exp. 38, pii: 1887, doi: 10.3791/1887. PMID: 20364119. (2010)

Liu JS, Passaglia CL. “Using the Horseshoe Crab, Limulus Polyphemus, in Vision Research” Journal of Visualized Experiments. 29 DOI: 10.3791/1384. (2009)

Passaglia CL, Freeman DK, Troy JB. “Effects of Remote Stimulation on the Modulated Activity of Cat Retinal Ganglion Cells” Journal of Neuroscience 29: 2467-76. (2009)

Werner B, Cook PB, Passaglia CL “Whole-Cell Recordings of Light-Evoked Excitatory Synaptic Currents in the Retinal Slice” Journal of Visualized Experiments 17 DOI: 10.3791/771. (2008)

Freeman DK, Heine WF, Passaglia CL “The Maintained Discharge of Rat Retinal Ganglion Cells” Visual Neuroscience. 18:1-10. (2008)

Werner B, Cook PB, Passaglia CL “Complex Response Patterns from a Simple Retinal Circuit” Journal of Neurophysiology. 100: 1087-97. (2008)

Troy JB, Bohnsack JL, Chen J, Guo X, Passaglia CL “Spatiotemporal Integration of Light by the Cat X-Cell Center Under Photopic and Scotopic Conditions” Vis. Neurosci. 22: 493-500. (2005)