Rodents use active whisker movements to explore their environment. The “slip hypothesis” of whisker-related tactile perception entails that short-lived kinematic events (abrupt whisker movements, called “slips”, due to bioelastic whisker properties that occur during active touch of textures) carry the decisive texture information. Supporting this hypothesis, previous studies have shown … More New Publication – Support for the slip hypothesis from whisker-related tactile perception of rats in a noisy environment

Artificial activation of neural circuitry through electrical microstimulation and optogenetic techniques is important for both scientific discovery and clinical translation. However, neural activity generated by these artificial means differs dramatically from normal circuit function, both locally and in the propagation to downstream brain structures.The precise nature of these differences and … More New Publication – Electrical and Optical Activation of Mesoscale Neural Circuits with Implications for Coding

The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative is part of a new Presidential focus aimed at revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain. By accelerating the development and application of innovative technologies, researchers will be able to produce a revolutionary new dynamic picture of the brain that, for … More Stanley lab receives NIH Brain Initiative award

Auralie Pala will be joining the Stanley lab as a post doctoral researcher beginning in December. She comes to us from Carl Peterson’s lab at the Ecole Polytechnige Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne Switzerland. Her PhD work was in 2-photon guided patching exploring cell type specific cortical connectivity.

Optogenetics provides a powerful tool for studying the brain by allowing researchers to activate neurons using simple light-based signals. But until now, these optical stimulation techniques have been “open loop,” meaning they lack the kind of feedback control that most biological and engineering systems use to maintain a steady operating … More Closing the Loop with Optogenetics