Context matters: from sensory processing to decision making

Sense of touch (somato-sensation) becomes available to embryos even before birth and is one of the oldest senses in the animal kingdom, yet little is known about how somatosensory stimuli interact with contextual factors to regulate an organism’s behaviour. Contextual modulation of interactions across space and time causes prominent changes in the processing of information in brain and perception. This project examines how temporal context effects affect information processing and operate for high-level attributes of stimuli as well as interactions of self and environment. We aim to understand the nature and mechanisms of temporal contextual modulation on sensory information processing, perception, perceptual judgement and decision making at cellular, circuit and cognitive levels. This project employs a comparative approach in two species separated by ~100 million years of evolution: rodents and humans. In both species, the project combines behavioural and computational approaches with methods of observation (electrophysiology and imaging) and manipulation (optogenetics) of activity of neuronal circuits mainly in somatosensory areas.