Research Overview
We are interested in the neural basis of real-world sensory perception. We combine theory and experiments to study how neurons encode visual scenes for transmission from the retina to the brain, in a relay called the LGN. Perceptual discriminations are normally made within a complex and structured environment. The input to each sensory receptor is constantly changing in time as things in the environment move and change, and as the organism itself moves through the world. Often this complex and changing information must be processed from a single unique experience. Reliable perceptual judgments must be made rapidly to be useful for the control of behavior. Therefore we seek to explain how dynamic sensory stimuli can be reliably encoded by the responses of sensory neurons, in real time and in a single trial.

Ultimately our goal is to link putative neural codes to the level of visual perception. To this end we have developed a rodent preparation for studying visual physiology and behavior. Rodents are ideally suited to a broad range of experimental methods, including molecular/genetic manipulation, anatomy, slice physiology, in vivo physiology, and perceptual behavior. A major focus of our research in rodents is to test theories about the function of the cortical feedback loop to the thalamus.