Menu

Research Focus

Keywords

  • Neural Circuits
  • Spatial Cognition
  • Multisensory Integration
  • Cellular Neurophysiology
  • Systems Neuroscience
  • Animal Behaviour
  • Equipment & Techniques

  • Electrophysiological recording techniques
  • Calcium imaging
  • Whole cell patch clamp
  • Behavioural analysis
  • Science Culture

  • Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing
  • Reproducibility in Science
  • Mentorship
  • Teaching
  • Science Communication
  • Back

    Dr Sepiedeh Keshavarzi

    (she/her/hers)
    University Position
    Assistant Professor
    Dr Sepiedeh Keshavarzi is pleased to consider applications from prospective PhD students.

    Interests

    The broad goal of our research is to understand how neurons and the brain circuits in which they are embedded use incoming sensory information to generate cognitive processes and guide behaviour. Our primary focus is on the neural underpinnings of the sense of self-motion and orientation in space. Knowing which way we are heading, how fast we are moving, and our orientation relative to a given location requires the processing and integration of various sensory signals from the body and the surrounding environment. We aim to determine how these different types of information are organised and integrated within thalamocortical and intracortical circuits involved in spatial navigation and how they contribute to orientation computations and behaviour. We investigate these questions both in the healthy adult brain and also during ageing. In doing so, we hope to gain deeper mechanistic understanding of spatial cognition and why it tends to decline with age.

    Key Publications

    Cortical integration of vestibular and visual cues for navigation, visual processing, and perception

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-120722-100503
    Journal: Annual Review of Neuroscience
    Year: 2023
    Authors: Keshavarzi S, Velez-Fort M, Margrie TW

    Multisensory coding of angular head velocity in the retrosplenial cortex

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2021.10.031
    Journal: Neuron
    Year: 2022
    Authors: Keshavarzi S, Bracey EF, Faville RA, Campagner D, Tyson AL, Lenzi SC, Branco T, Margrie TW

    A circuit for integration of head- and visual-motion signals in layer 6 of mouse primary visual cortex

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.02.023
    Journal: Neuron
    Year: 2018
    Authors: Velez-Fort M*, Bracey EF*, Keshavarzi S*, Rousseau CV*, Cossell L, Lenzi S, Strom M, Margrie TW

    Dendritic organization of olfactory inputs to medial amygdala neurons

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0627-15.2015
    Journal: Journal of Neuroscience
    Year: 2015
    Authors: Keshavarzi S, Power JM, Albers EHH, Sullivan RK, Sah P

    Functional properties and projections of neurons in the medial amygdala

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1176-14.2014
    Journal: Journal of Neuroscience
    Year: 2014
    Authors: Keshavarzi S, Sullivan RK, Ianno DD, Sah P

    Publications

    A cortico-collicular circuit for orienting to shelter during escape

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05553-9
    Journal: Nature
    Year: 2023
    Authors: Campagner D*, Vale R*, Tan YL, Iordanidou P, Pavon AO, Claudi F, Stempel AV, Keshavarzi S, Petersen RS, Margrie TW, and Branco T

    Probabilistic tensor decomposition of neural population spiking activity

    DOI: https://openreview.net/forum?id=1bBF5Zq1YHz
    Journal: Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems
    Year: 2021
    Authors: Soulat H, Keshavarzi S, Margrie TW, Sahani M

    A deep learning algorithm for 3D cell detection in whole mouse brain image datasets.

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009074
    Journal: PLOS Computational Biology
    Year: 2021
    Authors: Tyson AL*, Rousseau CV*, Niedworok CJ*, Keshavarzi S, Tsitoura C, and Margrie TW