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Biological Sciences

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Michael Burger, Professor of Biological Sciences at Lehigh University

R. Michael Burger

Professor

Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs

610.758.5422
rmb206@lehigh.edu
D220 - Iacocca Hall
Education:

University of Texas at Austin: Ph.D., Zoology, Section of Neurobiology, Degree conferred: November 2000

Ithaca College: B.A., cum laude, double major: Psychology and Anthropology, Degree conferred: May 1993

University of Washington School of Medicine, NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow 2001-2005

Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München Germany, Postdoctoral Fellow 2005-6

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Research Statement

I am interested in how the brain processes information about its sensory environment. The auditory system can process sound information with amazing precision. For example, auditory neurons can detect the tiny microsecond differences in arrival time of a sound between the two ears, a property that is related to a sound's location. The processing of acoustic cues is critical for all animals in a wide range of behaviors including predator-prey interactions and social communication. An elegant and elaborate neural circuitry has evolved in species across the animal kingdom to process this information. 

My research centers on the question of how cellular, synaptic, and systems level properties are integrated to allow sensory neurons to extract and represent features of the acoustic environment. The vertebrate auditory system is composed of a rich network of brain regions that process sound signals over interconnected neural pathways. In general, each brain center is devoted to the computation of specific properties of sounds and these properties are encoded by virtue of the synaptic connections and intrinsic properties of neurons in the network. Find out more about our current projects here. Our work is supported by a U01 from the National Institutes of Health.

Biography

R. Michael Burger is a professor of biological sciences. He earned his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin prior to postdoctoral fellowships at the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich. He is a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

At Lehigh, Burger teaches courses in the behavioral neuroscience program. He served on the Department of Biological Sciences Graduate Committee for many years, has served on the Health Professions Advisory Committee, and served as Chair of the University Faculty Compensation Committee for three years. He served as Associate Editor at Frontiers in Neural Circuits and currently serves as Associate Editor for the The Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology. He is a member of the Editorial Board at the Journal of Neurophysiology. Finally, he provides frequent service to grant review panels for the NIDCD. Since 2020, Dr. Burger has served as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies for the College of Arts and Sciences.

Scholarship 

Books Edited:

Neuromodulatory Function in Auditory Processing. Eds. Burger, R. M., Kopp-Scheinpflug, C. (2022). Lausanne: Frontiers Media SA. ISBN 978-2-88976-315-3 doi: 10.3389/978-2-88976-315-3 

Inhibitory Function in Auditory Processing. Eds. Burger, R.M., Kopp-Scheinpflug, C., Forsythe, I.D. 2015 EBook. Frontiers Media SA. ISBN 978-2-88919-667-8. 

Book Chapters:

Wang, Y., Sanchez, J.T., Lu, Y., Burger, R.M., Seidl, A.H. and Rubel, E.W. (2017) Nucleus Laminaris. In: Handbook of Brain Microcircuits, 2nd Ed. Shepard, G. and Grillner, S. (Eds.), Oxford University Press. New York. ISBN-13: 9780190636111 DOI:10.1093/med/9780190636111.001.0001

Burger, R. M. (2017) Development and Function of Inhibitory Circuitry in the Avian Auditory Brainstem. In: Springer Handbook of Auditory Research (Vol. 58): Auditory Development and Plasticity, in honor of Edwin W Rubel. Eds. Cramer, K.S., Coffin, A., Fay, R.R., and Popper, A.N. Springer International Publishing, Switzerland. ISBN: ISBN 978-3-319-21530-3

Coleman, W.L. and Burger, R. M. Extracellular Recording and Neuropharmacological Methods. In: Basic Electrophysiological Methods. Eds. Covey, E. and Carter, M. Oxford University Press. 2015 ISBN: 9780199939800

Refereed Research Papers (in the last 10 years):

Owusu-Nyantakyi, K., *Hamlett, L.S., Ashida, G., Weimann, S.R. Oline, S.N., and Burger, R.M. (2026) Hyperpolarization-activated cation channels confer tonotopic specialization in the cochlear nucleus. The Journal of Neuroscience  https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1323-25.2026

Malik, T., Jones, S., Ma, O., Mohan, S., Burger, R.M., Babcock, D.T. (2026) Autophagy induction mitigates FUS aggregate formation and early synaptic dysfunction at the NMJ in the FUS-ALS model. Nature Cell Death Discovery. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41420-026-03286-6

Vaughn MJ, Yellamelli N, Burger RM, and Haas JS (2025) Dopamine receptors D1 and D4 modulate electrical synapses and excitability in the thalamic reticular nucleus. The Journal of Neurophysiology. Vol 133 (2). p374-387.

Zhang, C. and Burger, R.M. (2024) Cholinergic modulation in the vertebrate auditory pathway. Review. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience. Volume 18 - 2024 https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2024.1414484

Weimann, S.R.*, Zhang, C.*, and Burger, R.M. (2024) A Developmental Switch in Cholinergic Mechanisms of Modulation in the Medial Nucleus of the Trapezoid Body. The Journal of Neuroscience. 44(8)  e0356232023 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0356-23.2023

Burger, R.M. and Kopp-Scheinpflug, C. (2022) Editorial: Neuromodulatory Function in Auditory Processing. Frontiers in Neural Circuits. 16: DOI=10.3389/fncir.2022.898646    ISBN 978-2-88976-315-3 

Zhang, Chao, Beebe, N.L., Schofield, B.R., Pecka, M. and Burger, R.M. (2021) Endogenous Cholinergic Signaling Modulates Sound-evoked Responses of the Medial Nucleus of the Trapezoid Body. The Journal of Neuroscience 41(4):674-688. PMCID: PMC7842756

Beebe*, N.L., Zhang*, C., Burger, R.M., Schofield, B.R. (2021) Multiple Sources of Cholinergic Input to the Superior Olivary Complex. Frontiers in Neural Circuits  https://doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2021.715369.  PMCID: PMC8319744 *equal contribution

Weimann, S.R., Black, A., Leese, J., Richter, M.L., Itzkowitz, M., and Burger, R.M. (2018) Territorial Vocalization in Sympatric Damselfish: Acoustic Characteristics and Intruder Discrimination. Bioacoustics Journal 27(1) p87-102.

Fischl*, M. J., Burger* R.M., Schmidt-Pauli, M., Alexandrova, O., Sinclair, J.L., Grothe, B., Forsythe, I., Kopp-Scheinpflug, C. (2016) Physiology and Anatomy of Neurons in the Medial Superior Olive (MSO) of the Mouse. The Journal of Neurophysiology, 116(6):2676-2688. doi: 10.1152/jn.00523.2016      *equal contribution

Oline, S.N., Ashida, G., and Burger, R.M. (2016) Tonotopic optimization for temporal processing in the cochlear nucleus. The Journal of Neuroscience. 36(32):8500-8515.

 


 

Visit Michael Burger's Google Scholar page for his full publication history.

Teaching

BIOS 276 Central Nervous System and Behavior