Multi-scale, multi-species experimental data and models towards insights into the function of multicompartment neurons
In collaboration with labs in Berlin, Amsterdam, New York, Stirling, Oslo and Bern, we are testing ideas that cortical pyramidal neurons with distinct points of integration have a central role in cognition, that might be related to the separation of internal and external information streams in individual neurons. We are exploring multi-scale biological data in humans, monkeys and rodents, and considering the theoretical issues that follow, in experimental, modeling and machine learning domains.
Cortical layering and layer-spanning neuronal compartments
With Matthew Larkum and Robert Sachdev in Berlin, we are developing the perspective that cortical layering should be understood in terms of the location of terminations of synaptic inputs on distinct cellular compartments and their effect on the output of the neuron, and on cortical activity. In a series of human imaging experiments, aligned to findings from rodent subcellular recordings, we use laminar fMRI to test how perceptual and memory-related events arise from the cortical layer-dependent distribution of synaptic inputs.