Plasticity and Processing in Somatosensory Cortex

Welcome to the homepage of the Feldman Lab at UC Berkeley.

Fall 2006

We are a neuroscience research lab that studies the function and development of the cerebral cortex. Our goals are to understand how the cortex processes sensory information, stores information during learning, and is shaped by sensory experience during development. This work is critical both for understanding normal brain function, and for developing new insights and new therapeutic strategies for neurological disorders such as mental retardation, learning disability, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and epilepsy.

We focus both on cellular physiology and on systems-level sensory representation and sensory processing. The model system is the somatosensory cortex of rodents, which is a leading system for studying cortical neurons, synapses, circuits, coding, plasticity, and behavior (e.g., Petersen, 2007, Lubke & Feldmeyer 2007, Feldman & Brecht 2005, Diamond et al., 2008).

The lab is part of the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology, and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, at UC Berkeley. We are also a member of the NSF-funded Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center, whose goal is to understand how timing affects learning on the neurobiological and cognitive levels, and to use this information to improve education.

Areas of Investigation