I am interested in how the brain uses visual information to guide movement. In particular, I am looking at how genetic manipulations affect the developing visual system and influence visuomotor coordination during naturalistic prey-capture behavior in the mouse.
Currently exploring how mice respond to specific visual information as a function of social hierarchy. I am focusing on understanding the development of visually-guided social behavior among singling groups.
Little is known about how the maturation of cortical versus subcortical circuits influences innate visual behaviors such as recognition of prey. I am investigating whether developmental changes in activity patterns of networks in the visual cortex versus the midbrain correlate with changes in approach and freezing behavior in mice.
I am interested in understanding how specific wiring in the brain underlies behavioral responses to visual information. I work towards this by recording the electrical activity of visually responsive neurons in the cortex and midbrain while animals view behaviorally salient visual stimuli. I then compare how visual stimulus features are encoded by these neurons in animals with different experiences and under different behavioral states.
R-rrrrrr: Fun with statistics!
Undergraduate and Post Baccalaureate Associates
Grace Gentry
Makayla DeBarge
Luis Martinez
Milen Kumar
Former lab members
Ariel Ayala
Zhibang Lin
Jenny Qi
Maria Peregrina
