Donald O’Malley

Donald O'Malley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Northeastern University, where he directs the Systems Neurobiology of Fish and Men laboratory. His research integrates cellular, systems, and computational approaches to investigate neuronal networks underlying complex behaviors in zebrafish models and mammalian cortical function.

His primary research interests span Systems Neuroscience, Computational Neuroscience, and Behavioral Neuroscience, with specific focus on nuclear calcium signaling, cholinergic/GABAergic co-transmission in visual-motion detection, and symbolic operations in mammalian cortex. He explores pre-linguistic brain modules and their evolutionary role in language development, alongside knowledge organization in neocortex and its degradation in aging/neuropathology using reflective learning algorithms like Digital Maze games.

Analysis of his recent publications (2005-2014) reveals a dominant theme of zebrafish neuroethology, examining locomotor control, social hierarchies, and neural circuitry through advanced imaging and computational modeling. His work bridges experimental neuroscience with engineering innovations, particularly in nanowire-based neural recording interfaces and 3D confocal analysis.

Dr. O'Malley's laboratory employs confocal and high-speed imaging to dissect neural mechanisms of behavior in intact vertebrates, maintaining active research on how neuronal populations generate locomotor, social, and predatory behaviors while investigating cortical mechanisms of symbolic processing and language evolution.