Subject areas:
Research
My lab aims to understand how sensory input is represented in the brain and transformed into behavioral commands. We study this problem in the superior colliculus (SC), a structure comprising functionally diverse sensory and motor neurons interleaved with fibers from myriad cortical and subcortical areas. This remarkable neuroanatomy poises the SC as an integrative hub, but has also hindered efforts to dissect SC circuitry using classical methods, such as lesions, that offer poor spatial and temporal resolution. In order to record from and manipulate genetically defined cell types, we study the mouse SC, where we capitalize on an experimental preparation I developed that allows imaging of neuronal population activity in the SC of awake animals in the context of quantitative behavioral assays.