Cortical Networks and Visual Function

Complex information processing in the brain requires the coordinated behavior of millions of cells that are wired together into networks. Although vision occurs seamlessly, it involves massive processing of information in a manner that is dynamically influenced by context. Neurons of the visual cortex take simple inputs and transform them into outputs that form the building blocks of vision. We study how cortical networks carry out such transformations, and how the transformations are influenced by the spatial and temporal context of visual stimuli as well as by the internal state of the organism, such as expectation and attention. For example, we are visualizing functioning synapses in the cortex in vivo in order to directly relate structural changes in single neurons to functional changes in networks that accompany visual learning and memory.