Stimulant laxatives are widely used and usually very effective in the short term, but how they work is very poorly understood. Our recent work has shown that they selectively excite sensory pathways from the colon which then trigger defaecation. This points to an undiscovered mechanism that potently affects colonic sensation and motility. This is likely to be a target for new treatments for other colonic disorders such as Irritable bowel syndrome and faecal incontinence.
This project examines the types of computations used by brain cells to combine two types of sensory information, in a way that allow us to reach better decisions in everyday life. To address this general problem, we will perform experiments that explore the combination of signals from vision and hearing. The ability to combine sensory information is vital to our mental health, and this process is compromised in a range of psychological, psychiatric and neurological disorders.