Adesnik Lab

Our laboratory aims to reveal the neural basis of perception. More specifically, we want to understand exactly how cortical microcircuits process sensory information to drive behavior. While decades of research have carefully outlined how individual neurons extract specific features from the sensory environment, the synaptic, circuit, and brain-wide mechanisms that permit ensembles of cortical neurons to actually process sensory information and generate perceptions are largely unknown.

1ST GOAL

To understand the neural basis of sensory perception and the underlying logic and syntax of the neural codes of sensation.

2ND GOAL

To develop new high-speed and spatially precise optical approaches to manipulate neural activity at the level of single neurons in the intact brains of awake, behaving animals to decipher the neural code that underlies sensory perception.

3RD GOAL

To understand how the learning algorithms relating plasticity at individual synapses gives rise to visual processing and memory.