Neuronal activity underlying efficient sensory processing

This project aims to study how neuronal activity in sensory cortex generates an efficient representation of the external world. Operating with finite quantity of attentional resources, the brain needs to prioritise processing in the modality expected to provide key information in a particular context. This project combines neurophysiology, behavioural and computational sciences to establish a novel detection paradigm for studying the mechanisms underlying attention in rodents. The goal of the project is to characterise how attention changes the response properties of individual sensory neurons and how this in turn improves efficiency of information transmission and behaviour.