Dr Jasper Poort

Interests

I want to understand how we selectively process behaviourally relevant visual input. How does the brain turn a constant overflow of sensory information into selective representations of our environment that can optimally guide our actions? Studying this helps to understand how we successfully make visually-guided decisions and navigate complex visual environments. It also gives insights into neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia and autism, which are associated with deficits in filtering sensory information.

We use electrophysiology and 2-photon calcium imaging to track responses of populations of neurons, to study how perceptual organization, learning and attention alter the way in which visual stimuli are processed in different brain areas, including primary visual cortex (providing detailed representations of visual features) and higher-level frontal and parietal brain areas (with less detailed but more flexible task-dependent representations).

Research Focus

Equipment

Behavioural analysis

Calcium imaging

Computational modelling

Electrophysiological recording techniques

Field potential recording

Immunohistochemistry

Microscopy