Our lab develops innovative optical, behavioral and computational tools to study sensory-motor processing and decision making in the mammalian brain. We aim to compare these processes across rodents and primate species, not only to understand their evolutionary constraints, but most importantly to identify their general principles. We currently focus on three main topics:
Pallesthesia: Most object around us are not static, but can move and thus continuously generate vibrations. These oscillatory stimuli propagate through the substrates, and are sensed by mechanoreceptors in our body. Yet, our sense of vibration (pallesthesia) not only provides important cues about moving objects, it is also essential when we explore surface textures. Combining the sensory physchophysics and neuronal recordings, we study the sensory coding of vibrotactile stimuli from the peripheral organs and follow its transformation all along the ascending pathway to the cortex, where we aim to deduce general computational principles of sensory coding.
Motor control: Whether it is for tying one’s shoe laces or exploring the iPhone, we need to continuously practice new movements and acquire novel motor skills. Frontal cortex is one of the key brain areas participating in coordinating and learning of such voluntary movements. Our experiments in rodents and primates will ultimately help us to understand some of the basic neuronal mechanisms that govern our own actions, enabling us to solve new challenges.
Primate neuroethology: Primates are considered some of the most highly encephalized creatures on the planet. The significant metabolic expense of their large brains is thought to be justified by the remarkable cognitive functions and behavioral skills. With their advanced neural circuits, primates are thought to surpass other animals in flexibility, agility, curiosity, and the ability to understand and interact with their environment and social groups. We study how these traits are related to brain activity in the mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus), an animal model for an early stem primate. Our studies range from observations in their natural habitat in Madagascar, to controlled experiments in large scale naturalistic laboratory settings.