Category Archive

Direct interfaces with the brain provide exciting new ways to restore and repair neurological function. For instance, motor Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMIs) can bypass a paralyzed person’s injury by repurposing intact portions of their brain to control movements. Recent work shows that BMIs do not simply “decode” subjects’ intentions—they create new systems subjects learn to control. To improve BMI performance and …

An important open question in visual neuroscience is how visual information is represented in the cortex. Important results characterized neural coding by assessing the responses to artificial stimuli, with the assumption that responses to gratings, for example, capture the key features of neural responses, and deviations, such as extra-classical effects, are relatively minor. The failure of these responses to have …

The advances in neuroimaging in the last decades have bridged the translational gap, and enabled our understanding of the brain under physiological and disease conditions. Multiscale and multimodal imaging such as positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, optoacoustic and fluorescence imaging have provided molecular, structural, and functional insights at cellular, circuit, and whole brain levels.

The human visual system consists of a hierarchy of areas, each of which represents different features of the visual world. Recent studies have revealed that most brain areas—and even many individual neurons—represent information about multiple visual features. Thus, a complete model of the brain must specify the relative importance of multiple visual features across the visual hierarchy. This talk will …

Understanding the neural basis of brain function and dysfunction may inform the design of effective therapeutic interventions for brain disorders and mental illnesses. Optical techniques have been recently developed for structural and functional imaging as well as targeted stimulation of neural circuits. One of the challenges of optical modality is light delivery deep into the brain tissue in a non-invasive …

This talk will review the evolution of Michigan neural probe technologies toward scaling up the number of recording sites, enhancing the recording reliability, and introducing multi-modalities in neural interface including optogenetics. Modular system integration and compact 3D packaging approaches have been explored to realize high-density neural probe arrays for recording of more than 1,000 channels simultaneously.

The Mindscope project at the Allen Institute aims to elucidate mechanisms underlying cortical function in the mouse, focusing on the visual system. This involves concerted efforts of multiple teams characterizing cell types, connectivity, and neuronal activity in behaving animals. An integral part of these efforts is the construction of models of the cortical tissue and cortical computations.