Sensory cortices

Interacting with the environment to process sensory information, generate perceptions, and shape goal-directed behavior engages neural networks in brain areas with highly varied representations, ranging from unimodal sensory cortices to higher-order association areas. These networks form and undergo considerable and potentially area-specific refinement over development. However, recent work suggests a much greater degree of commonality in the functional organization of networks across such diverse cortical areas during early development. It is currently unknown whether this initially common st

…agranular insular and secondary motor cortices are generally included in the PFC. The PFC is critically involved in the acquisition and expression of flexible behavioral responses to changing sensory information, and prefrontal signalling to (neocortical) sensory regions is assumed to be essential to these processes.In the present study, we characterized the anatomical organization of excitatory, prefrontal projections to neocortical sens

…us to hold transiently and process sensory information for a future goal. The prefrontal cortex was long thought to be the specific site for working memory in mammals. However, there is growing evidence that parallel distributed circuits may be responsible for working memory stressing the importance of sensory cortices for the active maintenance of information in working memory. The specific functions of working memory representations in sensory versus associate areas remains unknown. One possibility is that associative areas co

…Using this technique in sensory cortices could leverage the spatial organization of stimulus feature encoding across the cortical surface to artificially induce perception and restore a lost sense. However, achieving precise stimulation to recruit sensory neuronal populations is challenging, as the full spatial extent of neuronal morphology, including distal parts, may contribute to optogenetic activation. In this study, we investigate how mo

Naked mole-rats are small rodents with very elaborate colony organization with up to 300 members. Their colonies structure is highly hierarchical and cooperative. Naked mole-rats have a rich vocal repertoire that consists of ~25 vocalization types. The most commonly used vocalizations are the so-called soft chirps (SC). SC are used antiphonally with repeated call and response bouts between colony mates. Acoustic playbacks of SC elicit vocal responses in receiver animals, only if the SC belong to a member of the same colony as the listener. This behavior requires an exquisite discrimination of

A central principle of most sensory cortices is that they are topographically organized- neurons close to each other have similar tuning properties, varying along a physical stimulus feature. Such an organization has not been found yet in the olfactory system. This is because odors constitute discrete objects that do not vary along a specific physical dimension. Here, we have developed a method to reveal the receptive field (RF) of anterior piriform cortex (aPC) neurons. The RF is defined as the glomeruli set that affects the recorded aPC neuron. We found that, on average, an aPC neuron RF com

To build an appropriate representation of the sensory stimuli around the world, neural circuits are wired according to both intrinsic factors and external sensory stimuli. Moreover, the brain circuits have the capacity to rewire in response to altered environment, both during early development and throughout life. In this talk, I will give an overview about my past research in studying the dynamic processes underlying functional maturation and plasticity in rodent sensory cortices. I will also present data about the current and future research in my lab – that is, the synaptic and circuit me

…thalamic nucleus receives specific sensory information from the environment and projects topographically to its corres