Sensory and Behavioural Neuroscience Unit (Izumi Fukunaga)

The Sensory and Behavioural Neuroscience Unit seeks to understand how the brain processes incoming sensory information from the environment.

Olfaction is a salient modality for rodents, so we believe studying this sense in mice will reveal how mammalian circuits function in a behaviourally relevant manner. Key questions include what features of chemical information neurons in the primary olfactory represent, and with what neural codes they do so and what circuit mechanisms underlie generation of such codes, as well as how behavioural contexts influence this. We  use a variety of methods such as electrophysiology (patch-clamp, juxtacellular and LFP recordings), imaging (wide-field and two-photon fluorescence microscopy and photometry), optogenetic perturbations in awake, behaving animals, but also anatomical techniques and in vitro physiology. 

More about our research can be found in the publications page.

If you want to know more about how you can get involved in the research, do get in touch.