Experimental and computational study of auditory receptive field properties and connectivity

Supervisors

Claudia Clopath (Bioengineering)
Paul Chadderton (Bioengineering)

Neurons in primary auditory cortex show selectivity to a subset of their inputs, a property called receptive fields. Receptive fields are thought to be developed through synaptic plasticity, i.e., changing the connections between the neurons. However, it is unknown why different neurons have different receptive field properties (i.e. function) and how the function relates to their connectivity.

To address these open questions, the project will use first experimental tools to measure receptive field diversity, location and connectivity, and then computational modelling of synaptic plasticity to study the link between the connectivity structure and the function.

Student

Catriona Egan