The goal of research in the NT lab is to understand the contributions of sensory neuron activity to perception and behavior. The underlying premise of our research is that such understanding necessarily involves interpreting large-scale recordings in sufficiently complex (“natural”) experimental contexts, ideally that engage goal-directed behavior. As a result, we specialize in statistical modeling, which is a means to directly test hypotheses about neural computations and physiological elements of the system using recorded neural activity. The scope of our work has dramatically expanded in the last few years enabled to technological advances in both recording technology (large-scale physiological recordings) and machine learning tools. With our novel approaches now largely established, we have been working with the most promising experimental collaborations that could yield insights into fundamental aspects of sensory (and sensorimotor) brain function that have been largely inaccessible.

Current projects

Computational methods

Previous projects