Position Title
Professor and Chair
Barbara A. Horwitz and John M. Horowitz Endowed Chair in Physiology
- Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior
- Department of Neurology
- Center for Neuroscience
The long-term goal of my laboratory is to understand the functional properties of neural circuits that serve vision and the relationship between cell physiology, circuit activity, behavior and perception. Current research projects are focused on determining (1) how sensory information is processed and transmitted within and between brain areas, (2) the cellular and circuit mechanisms that mediate the effects of spatial attention on visual processing, (3) the role of feedback pathways for vision, (4) the relationship between neural activity and visual perception, and (5) the molecular, cellular, and circuit mechanisms that establish parallel processing streams in the prenatal retina.
Using an arsenal of techniques that includes whole-cell and multielectrode recordings from the isolated retina along with molecular phenotyping of identified cells, single and multielectrode recordings from anesthetized and behaving animals, optogenetic manipulation of neuronal activity, and fMRI, we are discovering how sensory information is established and encoded in brain activity, as well as the mechanisms employed by the brain for communicating information dynamically from one level to the next.
The Usrey laboratory is also home to Brainmaps.org, an interactive, high-resolution digital brain atlas and virtual microscope for students, educators, and researchers.
Our research is funded by the NIH, the NSF, the McKnight Foundation, the Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Graduate group affiliations: