Matthew A. Xu-Friedman

Matthew A. Xu-Friedman is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University at Buffalo, part of the College of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on synaptic plasticity mechanisms in the auditory system, particularly in auditory nerve synapses of the mouse cochlear nucleus. He investigates activity- and neuromodulator-dependent plasticity using electrophysiology and calcium imaging in brain slices, with in vivo recordings to study functional effects. His lab developed the mafPC software suite for electrophysiological data acquisition and analysis, widely used in neuroscience research.

Education: BS from Yale University, PhD from Cornell University, and postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School.

Research Interests: Synaptic dynamics, auditory signal processing, neuromodulation in auditory circuits, and the impact of hearing loss on synaptic function. The lab explores how synaptic plasticity modulates neural communication in the auditory pathway, with implications for understanding hearing disorders and neural adaptation.

Lab Contributions: The Xu-Friedman Lab's mafPC software facilitates complex stimulation paradigms and data collection. Their work has been featured in Journal of Neuroscience, Nature Communications, and highlighted in Science360 and the Academic Minute. Recent studies include investigations into age-related auditory changes, noise exposure effects, and GABAergic modulation in sound localization circuits.

Collaborations and Software: The lab actively collaborates internationally, encouraging feature suggestions for mafPC. Publications using their software are requested to acknowledge its use in methods sections.