Research Focus:

The Allen Institute for Brain Science is in the early stages of a large-scale, multi-year, experimental and theoretical effort to study coding in the cerebral cortex. A critical component of this effort is to systematically characterize neuronal cell types in the cortex and its afferent and efferent structures at molecular, anatomical, and physiological levels. One goal for the physiological study of neuronal cell types is to investigate synaptic connections formed by cell types, with in vitro preparations, using electrical and optical activation combined with multiple simultaneous neuronal recordings. Using this approach, we will address the following questions: Do different subpopulations of cells, defined by genetic markers, form discrete microcircuits? How do connectivity and the synaptic properties of the circuit influence circuit computations? Do the microcircuit properties correlate with functional properties?