Chang, Karen T.
Associate Professor of Physiology and Neuroscience
Our lab is interested in understanding how neurons communicate with high fidelity to support complex brain functions. We aim to uncover the molecular and cellular mechanisms that enable precise synaptic signaling and to explore how disruptions in these processes contribute to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Using Drosophila melanogaster as a genetically tractable model system, we integrate electrophysiology, molecular biology, confocal imaging, proteomics, and behavioral analysis to investigate synaptic function and plasticity.
Itti, Laurent
Professor of Computer Science and Psychology
The main fundamental research focus of the lab is in using computational modeling to gain insight into biological brain function. Thus, we study biologically-plausible brain models, and we compare the predictions of model simulations to empirical measurements from living systems. The brain subsystem towards which most of our efforts are focused is the visual system. Our modeling efforts range from fairly detailed models of small neuronal circuits, such as a single hypercolumn of orientation-selective neurons in primary visual cortex, to large-scale models embodying several million highly-simplified neurons to explore mechanisms of visual attention, gaze control, object recognition, and goal-oriented scene understanding. Further, we strive to employ modeling principles which are mathematically optimal in some task- and goal-dependent sense. Thus, we are interested in investigating the tasks and conditions for which the biological brain approaches the theoretical limits of information processing.
