Research Interests
Professor Van Sluyters is currently engaged in full-time administrative duties; his laboratory will be inactive until further notice.
Past research in the Van Sluyters laboratory focused on Mammalian Developmental Visual Neurobiology, in particular, determining the extent to which development of connections in the central visual pathways of mammals is guided by environmental, as opposed to genetic, factors. A variety of neuroanatomical, neurophysiological and behavioral techniques were used to address research problems relevant to this issue. One main goal was to understand the rules that govern the establishment, maintenance and modifiability of input from the two eyes onto single neurons in the striate cortex. A second major goal was to determine the role of vision in the development of interhemispheric cortical connections.
Selected Publications
Jones, D.G., Van Sluyters, R.C. and Murphy, K.M. (1991) A computational model for the overall pattern of ocular dominance. J. Neurosci. 11: 3794-3808.
Murphy, K.M., Jones, D.G. and Van Sluyters, R.C. (1995) Cytochrome-oxidase blobs in cat primary visual cortex. J. Neurosci.15: 4196-4208.
Olavarria, J.F. and Van Sluyters, R.C. (1995) The overall pattern of callosal connections in visual cortex of normal and enucleated cats. J. Comp. Neurol. 363: 161-176.
Bourdet, C. Olavarria, J.F. and Van Sluyters, R.C. (1996) Distribution of visual callosal neurons in normal and strabismic cats. J. Comp. Neurol. 366: 259-269.
Hernit, C.S., Murphy, K.M. and Van Sluyters, R.C. (1996) Development of the visual callosal cell distribution in the rat: Mature features are present at birth. Visual Neurosci. 13: 923-943.
Van Sluyters, R.C and Simpson, N. (1998) Playing by the rules: Money should not be an object. Lab Animal 27: 19-20.
Van Sluyters, R.C., Simpson, J. and Dell, R. (2000) Circumstances requiring an IACUC, Chapter 2 in, IACUC: Basic unit of an effective animal care and use program. Silverman, J., Murthy, S., and Suckow, M. (eds), CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp 11-18.
Van Sluyters, R.C., Simpson, J. and Dell, R. (2000) Creation of an IACUC, Chapter 3 in, IACUC: Basic unit of an effective animal care and use program. Silverman, J., Murthy, S., and Suckow, M. (eds), CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp 19-30.
Van Sluyters, R.C., Simpson, J. and Dell, R. (2000) Reporting lines of the IACUC, Chapter 4 in, IACUC: Basic unit of an effective animal care and use program. Silverman, J., Murthy, S., and Suckow, M. (eds), CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp 31-36.
Van Sluyters, R.C. (Editorial Board Member) “Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee Guidebook,” 2nd Edition, Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, NIH, Bethesda, MD, 2002.
Van Sluyters, R.C. (Chair), Guidelines for the Care and Use of Mammals in Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, Report of an Institute for Laboratory Animal Research Committee, National Research Council of the National Academies, The National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 2003.
Van Sluyters, R.C. and Obernier, J.A., Government & Regulatory Affairs: Guidelines for the Care and Use of Mammals in Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, Contemporary Topics, in Laboratory Animal Science: 43, 50-52, 2004.
