PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
August 2007-present, Research Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL
2005-2007, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Boston, MA
2003-2005, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Researcher, A.B. Kogan Research Institute for Neurocybernetics, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
Dr. Topchiy joined the Center for Narcolepsy, Sleep and Health Research in August of 2007. Her background includes basic sleep research and research on the neurophysiology of anxiety.
She has investigated the role of non-specific neuromodulatory systems of the brain in both the sleep-wakefulness cycle and behavior. Initially, she was interested in brain structure processes that regulate slow-wave sleep (the thalmo-cortical system). She reviewed interactions among separate thalmo-cortical and cortical groups of neurons and the reorganization of their relationships, which were assessed by sleep spindle indices, or specific EEG patterns that occur during slow-wave sleep.
Dr. Topchiy also explored local activity in separate neuronal groups of the rat somatosensory, or barrel, cortex during sleep and wakefulness. The research focused on phasic effects of sensory stimulation on the activity of these groups estimated by the indices of cortical-evoked responses. It showed micro-states of activation and inhibition of these groups that were assessed by fluctuations of the evoked-responses amplitude across both the sleep state and wakefulness.
Non-specific neuromodulatory systems of the brain are also involved in the regulation of anxiety, which in turn influence sleep. From this point, Dr. Topchiy also researched high and low anxiety subjects and animal models of anxiety that looked at the sleep-wakefulness cycle with modulating influences of sensory stimuli and pharmacological substances.
Another direction of her research investigated REM sleep, and mechanisms of generation of theta-rhythm that appears during REM sleep and some states of wakefulness. Theta-rhythm in waking states is associated with arousal and orientation, emotional drives, and anxiety. In experiments on anesthetized and freely-moving rats, Dr. Topchiy studied the interactions of various theta-generating structures (hippocampus, septum, and others) and the alteration of their activity in sleep and wakefulness by different pharmacological agents.
Dr. Topchiy's next study investigated cardiovascular regulatory mechanisms of the medulla in sleep and wakefulness. She performed simultaneous recordings of multiple nuerons from the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) and surrounding structures in freely-moving rats while in natural sleep-wakefulness states.
Currently, Dr. Topchiy is researching the mechanisms of the brainstem that are involved in regulation of respiration and sleep apnea. With microinjections of glutamate to the pontine structures, she is exploring the localization and physiological role of these sites in the modulation of respiratory patterns.
CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS
"Neurobiology of sleep apnea in aging"
"Intertrigeminal region control of apnea"
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