VISION: A PLATFORM FOR LINKING
CIRCUITS, PERCEPTION AND BEHAVIOR
June 12 - 25, 2013
Application Deadline: March 15, 2013

Instructors:
Andrew Huberman, University of California San Diego
Farran Briggs, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

The purpose of this course is to bring together students and faculty for in depth and high level discussions of modern approaches for probing how specific cell types and circuits give rise to defined categories of perception and action. It is also designed to address novel strategies aimed at overcoming diseases that compromise sensory function.

The visual system is the most widely studied sensory modality. Recently, three major shifts have occurred in the field of neuroscience. First, owing to the large array of genetic techniques available in mice and the relative ease of imaging and recording from the cortex of small rodents, the mouse visual system has become a premiere venue for attacking the fundamental unresolved question of how specific cells and circuits relate to visual performance at the receptive field and whole-animal level. Second, genetic and viral methods have evolved to the point where neurophysiologists can directly probe the role of defined circuits in species such as macaque monkeys, thus bridging the mechanism-cognition gap. Third, the field of visual neuroscience is rapidly paving the way for widespread clinical application of stem cell, gene therapy and prosthetic devices to restore sensory function in humans.

The time is ripe to build on the classic paradigms and discoveries of visual system structure, function and disease, in order to achieve a deep, mechanistic understanding of how receptive fields are organized and filter sensory information, how that information is handled at progressively higher levels of neural processing, and how different circuits can induce defined categories of percepts and behaviors in the healthy and diseased brain.

Scehdule and confirmed speakers:
June 11: Arrivals (by 6pm) / Welcome

June 12: Introduction & Background

June 13: Retina I (cell types/circuits)
Kevin Briggman, NIH/NINDS
David Berson, Brown University

June 14: Retina II (coding/repair/prostheses)
EJ Chichilnisky, Salk Institute
Rachael Pearson, University College London, UK

June 15: Subcortical-Cortical I (integrating peripheral signals/cell types)
Jianhua Cang, Northwestern University
Bill Guido, University of Louisville

June 16: Subcortical-Cortical II (receptive field transformations)
Cris Niell, University of Oregon
Marty Usrey, University of California, Davis

June 17: Cortex I (mapping circuits/alternate pathways)
Ed Callaway, Salk Institute
Kristina Nielsen, Johns Hopkins University

Jun 18: Cortex II (coding and processing)
Greg Horwitz, University of Washington
Matteo Carandini, University College London, UK

June 19: Day off

June 20: Circuit Plasticity/Repair
David Fitzpatrick, Max Planck Florida Institute
Sunil Ghandi, University of California, Irvine

June 21: Dorsal/Ventral Stream Processing & Attention
John Maunsell, Harvard Medical School
Doris Tsao, Caltech

June 22: Model Systems
Tom Clandinin, Stanford University
Herwig Baier, Max Planck Institute

June 23: Cortical Responses, Perception and Decisions
Anne Churchland, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Tony Movshon, New York University

June 24: Genetic and Psychophysical Approaches to Curing Blindness
Botond Roska, Friedrich Miescher Institute
Maureen Nietz, University of Washington

June 25: Wrap-up & Departure (by lunchtime)

The course will be held at the Laboratory’s Banbury Conference Center located on the north shore of Long Island. All participants stay within walking distance of the Center, close to tennis court, pool and private beach. The course will begin on the morning of June 12 (students are expected to arrive on the afternoon or evening of June 11) and end by lunchtime on June 25.

This course is supported with funds provided by XXXX