Our Research

Our aim is to reveal how neuronal networks integrate visual information to guide perceptions and actions.

We use the mouse primary visual cortex as a model system of cortical integration of sensory and non-sensory information. Neurons in the primary visual cortex respond to specific features of visual stimuli such as their location, their orientation and their direction of movement.

These visual responses do not only depend on the characteristics of the stimuli but are also strongly modulated by the context in which they are perceived, such as the animal’s behavioural state and its previous experience associated with these stimuli.

Locomotion, for example, increases the gain of visual responses in the primary visual cortex. Past experience can also durably modify visual cortical responses, for example through the association of a given stimulus with a positive or negative outcome.

By using two-photon calcium imaging combined with electrophysiological recordings in awake behaving mice, our current projects investigate:

  1. How visually-guided behaviour modulates neuronal activity in the visual cortex
  2. How individual pyramidal neurons integrate feed-forward visual inputs with contextual inputs
  3. How cortical information processing is impacted by metabolic state

Using such information, we apply the same combination of methods to study how this network activity is disrupted in the brain of mouse models for autistic spectrum disorders and intellectual disabilities.

(2023) V1T: large-scale mouse V1 response prediction using a Vision Transformer
(2022) Neocortex saves energy by reducing coding precision during food scarcity
(2022) Parametric Copula-GP model for analyzing multidimensional neuronal and behavioral relationships
(2021) Spatial navigation signals in rodent visual cortex
(2020) Reward association enhances stimulus-specific representations in primary visual cortex
(2019) High and asymmetric somato-dendritic coupling of V1 layer 5 neurons independent of visual stimulation and locomotion
(2018) High-fidelity multimode fibre-based endoscopy for deep brain in vivo imaging
(2018) Action and learning shape the activity of neuronal circuits in the visual cortex
(2018) The Impact of Visual Cues, Reward, and Motor Feedback on the Representation of Behaviorally Relevant Spatial Locations in Primary Visual Cortex
(2018) Optimization of interneuron function by direct coupling of cell migration and axonal targeting
(2018) FISSA: A neuropil decontamination toolbox for calcium imaging signals
(2018) Chronic Two-Photon Calcium Imaging in the Visual Cortex of Awake Behaving Mice (Book Chapter)
(2016) Behavioral-state modulation of inhibition is context-dependent and cell type specific in mouse visual cortex
Gabaergic inputs (in red) on layer 5 neuronal somata in mouse primary visual cortex (winner of the CIP image competition, selected for the exhibition 'The Brain is Wider than the Sky')
Website by Goodwright