This seminar is organised by the Programme on Mind and Machine, an Oxford Martin School institute

Abstract: Peripheral visual circuits perform paradigmatic computations such as motion processing. However, our understanding of the necessary and sufficient roles of individual cell types, their interactions, and the molecules that underpin their specific activity patterns remains limited. Our work combines genetic manipulations of both neural activity and molecular function with in vivo imaging of calcium and voltage signals to unravel circuit mechanisms using the Drosophila visual system as a model. Our results reveal that the algorithms used to detect visual motion in flies and humans are fundamentally similar.

Speaker: Thomas R. Clandinin is the Shooter Family Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from the California Institute of Technology in 1998, and was a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA until 2002. Clandinin’s work combines genetic approaches with analytical techniques adapted from systems neuroscience to determine how neural circuits process visual information. His honors include an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, a Searle Scholar Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, and a Scholar Award from the McKnight Foundation.

For further information, please contact Fiona Woods at fiona.woods@cncb.ox.ac.uk