Leonard Edward White

Structure and function of the mammalian brain

A long-standing goal of the ever-expanding field of neuroscience is to understand the structure and function of the brain, as well as the fundamental principles that shape its development and evolution. These are exciting times for those of us privileged to contribute to these lines of inquiry. New tools and new approaches are making possible new views and new ways of understanding brain structure and function at an ever-increasing pace.

Together with exceptional colleagues in the Duke Center for In Vivo Microscopy, the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, and the University of Pittsburgh, we are developing state-of-the-science magnetic resonance methods for interrogating brain structure in preclinical applications that are fully compatible with  complimentary approaches, such as light sheet microscopy. These methods are combing to provide new insights into the microscopic structure of the brain, whole-brain connectivity (quantitative connectomics), and how the microscopic structure of neural tissue constrains connectivity and function in preclinical animal models of health and disease.

Along with these current research activities, I continue to sustain interest in understanding how sensorimotor experience in early life influences — for better or worse — the formation and maturation of functional neural circuits in the cerebral cortex. Elsewhere in my scholarly portfolio, I remain active at the intersection of the brain sciences and the humanities, and in the science and scholarship of teaching and learning.