Research

Our research aims to understand neural responses in the visual system. We seek to understand how the visual system is wired up and to find simple mathematical expressions to describe its output. A goal for our research is to predict a neuron's responses to arbitrary, complex visual stimuli. Another goal of our research is to uncover the neural correlates of perceptual behaviors, at the levels of circuits and systems.

Our current interests mostly focus on how neurons in visual cortex integrate sensory inputs from the eyes and lateral inputs from the cortex itself. We wish to explain how these two kinds of inputs interact in determining neuronal responses, and how their relative importance may vary due to adaptive mechanisms. Much of this work is done in close collaboration with Kenneth Harris.

We investigate these questions with a combination of experiment and computational analysis. We work mostly in the mouse brain, with techniques such as multielectrode recordings, optogenetics, imaging, operant conditioning, and virtual reality simulation. Through multi-electrode recordings and optical imaging of voltage sensitive dyes, we measure the dynamics of population activity in the brain, both ongoing and in response to visual stimulation. We also occasionally work with humans, with techniques such as psychophysics and EEG recordings.

Our work is funded by the Wellcome Trust, the European Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the National Eye Institute, and the UK charity Fight for Sight. In the past we have also been funded by the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience, the James S McDonnell Foundation, the Human Frontiers Science Program, and the Swiss National Foundation.