Principal Investigator/Program Director (Last, First, Middle):
Catherine Emily Carr
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Provide the following information for the Senior/key personnel and other significant contributors.
Follow this format for each person. DO NOT EXCEED FOUR PAGES.
NAME
POSITION TITLE
Carr, Catherine Emily
Professor of Biology
eRA COMMONS USER NAME (credential, e.g., agency login)
cathcarr
EDUCATION/TRAINING (Begin with baccalaureate or other initial professional education, such as nursing, include postdoctoral training and
residency training if applicable.)
DEGREE
INSTITUTION AND LOCATION
MM/YY
FIELD OF STUDY
(if applicable)
University of Cape Town, Cape Town RSA
State Univ. New York at Buffalo
Univ. California at San Diego
BSc (Hons.)
MS
PhD
12/76
05/78
05/84
Zoology
Biology
Neuroscience
A. Personal Statement
My research is focused on the brainstem circuits that underlie sound localization. I have a broad background in
neuroscience. As a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech, I carried out neurophysiological and anatomical studies of
sound location in the barn owl. At the University of Maryland, I expanded my research to include
neurophysiological changes associated with coding temporal information. I have developing recording
techniques for working with young barn owls, and by addressing the nature of the neural code for ITD. As a
result of these previous experiences, I am aware of the importance of understanding sound localization
strategies among various land vertebrates, and their relevance to the cochlear implant population. In addition, I
have extensive experience in training postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, both at the University of
Maryland and in the Grass Foundation laboratory at the Marine Biology Lab at Woods Hole
B. Positions and Honors
Positions and Employment
1984-1987
1987-1990
1990-1995
1999-
Fellow, Division of Biology, Caltech, Pasadena, CA
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurobiology, Univ Rochester, Rochester, NY
Assistant Professor of Zoology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Professor of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Other Experience and Professional Memberships
1992-1998
2000-2005
2001-2005
2002-2006
2002-2005
2004-2014
20042005-2011
2006-2008
2010-2013
2011-
Member of Hearing Research panel (NIDCD) NIH
Co-Director, Neurobiology & Behavior course at MBL, Woods Hole.
Director, Howard Hughes Undergraduate Research Program, Univ. Maryland.
Member of Hearing Research panel (NIDCD) NIH
Member, Society for Neuroscience program committee
Action Editor, Journal Neurophysiology
Associate Editor, Journal of Computational Neuroscience
Member, MBL Science council
Director, Grass Lab, MBL
International Education Committee for the Society for Neuroscience, IBRO delegate
MBL Education committee
Honors
1980
1986
1988
1998
2004
2010
Grass Scholarship at Cold Spring Harbor
Society for Neuroethology prize for an outstanding paper by a Young Investigator
Alfred P Sloan Research Fellow
Univ Maryland Life Sciences excellence in research award
Humboldt Senior Research Prize, Technical Univ Munich
Velox Visiting Professor, Univ. Southern Denmark
Principal Investigator/Program Director (Last, First, Middle):
2011
2011-2012
2012
Catherine Emily Carr
Humboldt Senior Research Prize, Univ Oldenberg
Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg fellow
Fellow, AAAS
C. Selected peer-review publications (out of 111)
1. Bierman HS, Thornton JL, Jones HG, Koka K, Young BA, Brandt C, Christensen-Dalsgaard J, Carr CE,
Tollin DJ. 2014. Biophysics of directional hearing in the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis). J
Exp Biol. 2014 Apr 1;217(Pt 7):1094-107. doi: 10.1242/jeb.092866.
2. Carr CE, Köppl C, Shah S, McColgan T, Ashida G, Kempter R, Wagner H. 2013. Maps of ITD in the
nucleus laminaris. In: Basic Aspects of Hearing: Physiology and Perception, eds. B.C.J. Moore, R.D.
Patterson, I. Winter, R.P. Carlyon, and H.E. Gockel, in the series Advances in Experimental Medicine and
Biology, Springer, New York.
3. Kuokkanen PT, Ashida G, Carr CE, Wagner H, Kempter R. 2013 Linear Summation in the Barn Owl's
Brainstem Underlies Responses to Interaural Time Differences. J. Neurophys110, 117–130.
4. Willis, KL, Christensen-Dalsgaard, J and Carr CE. 2013. Middle ear cavity morphology is consistent with an
aquatic origin for testudines. PLoS ONE, 8(1), e54086. PMID:23342082
5. Christensen-Dalsgaard J, Tang YZ, Carr CE. 2011 Binaural processing by the gecko auditory periphery. J
Neurophysiol. 105:1992-2004. PMID: 22120438
6. Christensen-Dalsgaard J, Brandt C, Willis K, Christensen CB, Ketten D, Edds-Walton P, Fay RR, Madsen
PT, Carr CE. 2012. Specialization for underwater hearing by the tympanic middle ear of the turtle,
Trachemys scripta elegans. Proceedings of Royal Society B. 279:2816-24.
7. Ashida G, Funabiki K, Paula T. Kuokkanen PT, Kempter R, Carr CE. 2012 Signal-to-noise ratio in the
membrane potential of the owl's auditory coincidence detectors. J. Neurophys Aug 29. [Epub].
8. Ashida G, Carr CE. 2011 Sound localization: Jeffress and beyond. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 21:745-51.
9. Kuokkanen PT, Wagner H, Ashida G, Carr CE, Kempter R. 2010 On the origin of the extracellular field
potential in the nucleus laminaris of the barn owl (Tyto alba). J Neurophysiol. 104:2274-90.
10. Schnupp, JWH and Carr CE 2009. On hearing with more than one ear: lessons from evolution. Nature
Neurosci. 12:692-697. PMID: 19471267
11. Carr CE, Soares D, Smolders J and Simon JZ. 2009. Detection of interaural time differences in the
alligator. J. Neuroscience 29:7978-90. PMID: 19553438
12. Köppl C, Carr CE.2008. Maps of interaural time difference in the chicken's brainstem nucleus laminaris.
Biol Cybern. 98:541-59. PMID: 18491165.
Additional publications of importance to the field (in chronological order)
1. Kubke, MF, DP Masoglia, CE Carr 2002 developmental changes underlying the formation of the
specialized time coding circuits in barn owls (Tyto alba). J. Neuroscience. 22:7671-9.
2. Agmon-Snir H, CE Carr, J Rinzel 1998 The role of dendrites in auditory coincidence detection Nature
393:268-272
3. Carr, C E 1993 Timing mechanisms in the CNS Annual Review of Neuroscience 16 223-243
4. Carr, C E and Konishi, M 1990 A circuit for detection of interaural time differences in the brainstem of the
barn owl J Neurosci 10: 1337-1357
5. Carr, C. E., & Maler, L. (1986). Electroreception in gymnotiform fish: central anatomy and
physiology. Electroreception. Wiley, New York, 319-373.
D. Research Support
Ongoing Research Support
R01 DC00436-20
Carr (PI)
05/31/13-06/01/18
Cellular mechanisms underlying sound localization
The goal of this study is to analyze the brainstem circuits that process auditory information.
Role: PI