Neural circuits for visual behavior

 

A fundamental question in visual neuroscience, and in neuroscience generally, is how sensory information is represented within the brain and transformed into a behavioral response. In order for an animal to respond to a visual stimulus, the pattern of photons falling on the retina must be classified as a particular type of stimulus, and the brain must generate a spatially appropriate behavior, e.g. toward or away from the stimulus.

The goal of my research is to understand how neurons at different levels of the visual system represent the key features of the stimulus, and how this information is read out and transformed into a motor command.