Spontaneous activity and neural decoding in the developing brain. This project aims to investigate how patterns of neural activity emerge in the developing brain, using the zebrafish as a model system. This project expects to generate new knowledge regarding the functional significance of spontaneously generated activity, and how it interacts with sensory experience. The expected outcomes of this project include enhanced capacity at the interface between neuroscience and computation. This should ....Spontaneous activity and neural decoding in the developing brain. This project aims to investigate how patterns of neural activity emerge in the developing brain, using the zebrafish as a model system. This project expects to generate new knowledge regarding the functional significance of spontaneously generated activity, and how it interacts with sensory experience. The expected outcomes of this project include enhanced capacity at the interface between neuroscience and computation. This should provide significant benefits including greater insight into normal brain development, and the formulation of new concepts potentially relevant for brain-inspired computing.Read moreRead less
How does environmental enrichment affect brain development? This project aims to use brain imaging and advanced computational analyses to investigate how early sensory experience affects brain development. It adopts the larval zebrafish as a model system, since they display sophisticated behaviours from an early age, and neural activity can be recorded at whole-brain scale with single neuron resolution. The project aims to generate new knowledge regarding environmental effects on brain developme ....How does environmental enrichment affect brain development? This project aims to use brain imaging and advanced computational analyses to investigate how early sensory experience affects brain development. It adopts the larval zebrafish as a model system, since they display sophisticated behaviours from an early age, and neural activity can be recorded at whole-brain scale with single neuron resolution. The project aims to generate new knowledge regarding environmental effects on brain development and behaviour. This will provide significant benefits including greater insight into normal brain development, and the formulation of new concepts potentially relevant for brain-inspired computing. The expected outcomes also include enhanced capacity at the interface between neuroscience and computation.Read moreRead less
How do patterns of brain activity emerge during early life? This project uses theory and experiment to investigate how neural coding emerges in the developing brain. It adopts the larval zebrafish as a model system, because neural activity can be recorded at whole-brain scale but with single neuron resolution. The project expects to generate new knowledge regarding how neural activity comes to represent sensory stimuli, and new statistical models for interpreting large-scale patterns of neural a ....How do patterns of brain activity emerge during early life? This project uses theory and experiment to investigate how neural coding emerges in the developing brain. It adopts the larval zebrafish as a model system, because neural activity can be recorded at whole-brain scale but with single neuron resolution. The project expects to generate new knowledge regarding how neural activity comes to represent sensory stimuli, and new statistical models for interpreting large-scale patterns of neural activity. This will provide significant benefits including greater insight into normal brain development, and the formulation of new concepts potentially relevant for brain-inspired computing. The expected outcomes also include enhanced capacity at the interface between neuroscience and computation.Read moreRead less
The plasticity of neural codes. Information about the world is represented in the brain by the combined activity of populations of many neurons. However, the basic principles underlying how such population activity codes information are largely unknown. Using the map from the eye to the brain of the zebrafish as a model, the project aims to combine experimental measurements of neural activity with mathematical modelling in order to discover these basic principles. Of particular interest is how t ....The plasticity of neural codes. Information about the world is represented in the brain by the combined activity of populations of many neurons. However, the basic principles underlying how such population activity codes information are largely unknown. Using the map from the eye to the brain of the zebrafish as a model, the project aims to combine experimental measurements of neural activity with mathematical modelling in order to discover these basic principles. Of particular interest is how these coding principles change during development and their plasticity after disruptions to the visual map. Besides improving our understanding of how brains process information, the knowledge gained could help optimise the design of brain-computer interfaces and artificial computing devices.Read moreRead less