http://www.klab.caltech.edu:80/ (World Wide Web Directory, 06/1995)Research in the K-Lab focuses on three areas:
What are the biophysical mechanisms underlying neuronal computations? And how complex are single nerve cells? Research carried out in our group as part of a program called Biophysics of Computation studies how the biophysics and microanatomy of neurons subserves information processing. Detailed computer simulations of cortical pyramidal cells--based on electrophysiological and anatomical data from the laboratory of Prof. Rodney Douglas at Oxford--are used to generate experimentally verifiable predictions (Öjvind Bernander, Gary Holt - yoyo neuron movie (Under Construction)).
We are also analyzing the variability, reliability and randomness of
neurons embedded in networks (both simulated as well as from cortical
cells in the behaving monkey) in order to understand the temporal code
used by nerve cells to transmit information (Wyeth Bair, Fabrizio
Gabbiani, Pamela Reinagel, Martin Stemmler).
Understanding complex information-processing tasks, such as optical flow, hue perception, or selective, visual attention, requires a firm grasp of how the problems can be solved at the "computational" level, and how the resulting algorithms can be implemented onto the known architecture of the visual cortex and associated subcortical areas. We use analytical methods, coupled with detailed computer simulations of the appropriate circuitry in the cat and primate visual systems, to study how these neuronal networks give rise to motion perception and how they are involved in the control of selective visual (focal) attention (Giacomo Indiveri, Ernst Niebur, Humbert Suarez, Jiajun Wen). Researchers in our lab also study attention on the basis of human psychophysics (Jochen Braun, Jiajun Wen). Christof Koch is also trying to come to grips with the problem of consciousness and how it can arise out of neuronal structures (in collaboration with Dr. Francis Crick at the Salk Institute).
Because both animals and machines are faced with similar problems
when perceiving their environment, strategies devised over the last 500
million years by evolution can help us design better machines. We are
exploiting our understanding of early vision in flies, cats, and monkeys
by fabricating electronic circuits that implement these tasks in real
time. Using analog CMOS VLSI circuit technology, we have successfully
designed and tested vision chips (with on-chip photoreceptor arrays)
implementing zero-crossing detection, figure-ground segmentation, and
estimating optical flow (Brooks Bishofsberger,
Tim Horiuchi,
Giacomo Indiveri,
Jörg Kramer, Frank Perez).
We are engaged in an ambitious project to build a head-eye system
mimicking the primate oculo-motor system using both visual as well as
auditory saccades (Tim Horiuchi).
We are supported in all of this by Candi Hochenedel and by Dave Flowers.
Our laboratory is part of the Computation and Neural Systems Program at Caltech.
Lab Resources
Lab Activities