Attention, behavior, and visual processing.

Once visual signals leave the eye, they are subject to various forms of modulation that reflect behavioral state and cognitive processing. My laboratory has been particularly interested in understanding the neural mechanisms that underlie the enhanced detection of stimuli that accompanies spatial attention. Along these lines, we have developed various methods to probe and quantify the strength of neuronal connections and the dynamics of synaptic communication between thalamus and cortex as a function of behavior.