Research laboratory of Dr. Nicholas Priebe
Principal Investigator
Nicholas Priebe
I am interested in mechanisms underlying response properties of neurons in primary sensory cortex using both electrophysiology and imaging in vivo. As sensory information moves from the periphery to the cortex the representation of the world is systematically transformed. Understanding the basis for these transformations sheds light on how the brain makes sense of the complicated world in which we reside.
The Team
Post Doctoral Scientists
Baowang Li
My research interest is to understand the neural bases of visual perception in the visual cortex. Specifically, by using whole-cell intracellular recordings in the cortex of behaving animals, I aim to investigate the relationships between membrane potentials of single cortical neurons and perceptual decisions in detection tasks.
Jason Samonds
My interest is in understanding how the visual cortex takes local information and forms a global percept. Specifically, how does the cortex integrate distributed signals in order to identify correlations and patterns among those local cues? We use knowledge from natural scene statistics, psychophysical data, and computer vision algorithms to formulate hypotheses, and we employ rigorous statistical analyses on simultaneous recordings and imaging from multiple neurons distributed across the cortical network.
Jagruti Pattadkal
I am interested in understanding sensory transformations and their mechanisms in the visual system. I study this using in vivo two photon calcium imaging and in vivo intracellular recordings.
Graduate Students
Mandi Severson
Behavioral state is known to modulate visual input. My research interests lie in understanding the role of these nonvisual signals in visual cortex and uncovering the mechanisms that allow for stable perception even while undergoing behavioral state changes.
Liam Jennings
My research interests lie in using vision as a model to understand how sensory information is represented in the cortex. More specifically, my current research focuses on characterizing neural excitability in the primary visual cortex and its relationship to thalamic and cortical drive during spontaneous and visually-driven states. I am also researching how complex motion information is represented in the primary visual cortex. To study these questions, I use in vivo whole-cell electrophysiology and neuropixels in awake and anesthetized mice.
Ronan O’Shea
My research focuses on how sensory information is relayed from the periphery to cortex. I use in vivo electrophysiology, imaging, and computational models to explore how neural circuitry shapes sensory representations across environmental conditions. I am also studying how neural mechanisms of sensory relay are altered in autism. Through my work I hope to develop our understanding of how the brain reliably represents sensory information in constantly changing environments.
Research and Technical Staff
Alumni
Dylan Barbera (former Ph.D. student) currently at Recruitomics Consulting
Veronica Choi (former Ph.D. student) currently at SensEye
Chris Lee (former research technician) currently in medical school at UT Southwestern
Devon Greer (former research technician) currently a graduate student at Northwestern University
Mert Erdenizmenli (former research technician) currently in medical school at UT Medical Branch
Benjamin Scholl (former Ph.D. student) currently a post-doc at Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience.
Andrew Tan (former post-doctoral student) currently Assistant Professor at National University of Singapore.
Sari Andoni (former post-doctoral student) currently at SparkCognition.
Joe Corey (former M.S. student) currently at Agent Ace.
Deepankar Mohanty (former undergraduate researcher) finished at Baylor Medical School
Brandon Brown (former research technician)
Neda Shahidi (former research technician) currently a postdoc in Gottingen, Germany.