Position Title
Professor
- Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior
- Center for Neuroscience
Our lab investigates how the brain analyzes sounds, how attention influences this neural analysis, and how this leads to decisions and actions in response to sound. As part of this we address how we we segregate and analyze an individual sound source in an environment with many sound producing objects (sometimes called the cocktail party problem). We use a multidisciplinary approach combining neuroscience (recording the electrical activity of single neurons), behavior, psychology, and quantitative approaches. Little is now about the role of individual neurons in sound perception, and sound guided behavior and action. We have recently found that early areas in the auditory system, thought to be auditory only, are strongly influenced by attention and decisions made by the animal; this is surprising since early sensory areas are not just involved in sensing the sound, but also in guiding the behavior.
Graduate group affiliations: