Professor Leon Lagnado
Visual processing: linking circuits to behaviour
The retina and brain of larval zebrafish provide an excellent context in which to study how neural circuits process visual information. We can finely control the input to the circuits while observing the activity of neurons and synapses within them and then relate circuit activity to visually-driven behaviours that they drive. We achieve this by using i) multiphoton microscopy to image fluorescent reporter proteins in neurons as we present visual stimuli, and ii) video-based analysis of motor behaviours driven by vision, such as the optomotor response.
Our general aim is to understand how the retinal output is generated and the subsequent processing of this output in other visual centres. Directly linked to this, we are investigating the plasticity of these circuits and the mechanisms that adjust visually-driven behaviour in response to information from other senses (especially smell) and/or changes in internal state (especially circadian control).
Several projects are available around these themes, depending on the applicant's interests.
We collaborate with the laboratories of Tom Baden and Sylvia Schroeder on questions related to visual processing and its modulation.
Key references
- Johnston, J., Seibel, S-H., Darnet, L., Renninger, S., Orger, M. & Lagnado, L. (2019). A Retinal Circuit Generating a Dynamic Predictive Code for Oriented Features. Neuron 102(6):1211-1222.
- James, B Darnet L, Moya-Diaz J, Seibel S-H, Lagnado L. (2019). An amplitude code transmits information at a visual synapse. Nature Neuroscience, 22(7):1140-1147.
- Rosa JM, Ruehle S, Ding H, Lagnado L. (2016). Crossover Inhibition Generates Sustained Visual Responses in the Inner Retina. Neuron, 90(2):308-19.
- Nikolaev, A., B. Odermatt, Leung, K.-M. and L. Lagnado. (2013). Synaptic mechanisms of adaptation and sensitization in the retina. Nature Neuroscience, 7:934-4171.
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