Matteo Carandini (born 1967) is a neuroscientist who studies the visual system. He is currently a professor at University College London, where he co-directs the Cortical Processing Laboratory with Kenneth D Harris.

Matteo Carandini
Carandini speaks to the Wellcome Trust in 2024
Born1967
NationalityItalian, American
Awards
  • McKnight Scholar 2005,
  • GlaxoSmithKline
  • Fight for Sight Chair 2007,
  • European Research Council Advanced Investigator 2009,
  • Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator 2011
Scientific career
FieldsNeuroscience (Visual Neuroscience, Computational Neuroscience, Systems Neuroscience)
InstitutionsUniversity College London (professor)

He studies the visual cortex at the level of individual neurons and populations of neurons, their intercommunication within the visual cortex, with a particular interest in the functions of the eye, thalamus, and the early visual areas of the cerebral cortex. Carandini conducts his research with the goal of contributing to the knowledge of how the brain processes visual information in the human brain and he works primarily with mice.

His grandfather was ambassador Nicolo Carandini, and his uncle is archaeologist Andrea Carandini.

Achievements

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In the 1990s, working with David Heeger and J. Anthony Movshon he refined and provided evidence for Heeger's normalization model of V1 responses.[1][2]

Together with David Ferster he characterized the relationship between synaptic excitation, synaptic inhibition, membrane potential, and firing rate in visual cortex [3][4] and discovered that prolonged visual stimulation causes a tonic hyperpolarization in V1 neurons.[5] Further work characterized fast adaptive mechanisms in the responses of the early visual system,[6][7] compared cortical responses to the properties of natural images [8] and tested the resulting models' responses to complex natural stimuli.[9]

More recent work concerns the way that non-visual information affects activity in the classical visual system, including the discovery that neurons in primary visual cortex encode bodily movements[10] and even information about an animal's location in space,[11][12] a property previously thought to be restricted to higher-order brain systems such as place cells. Carandini has contributed to the development of Neuropixels probes,[13][14][15] and is a founding member of the International Brain Laboratory,[16] which uses this technology to study how brain activity subserves sensory discrimination. He is an advocate of Open access publishing in scientific research.[17]

References

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  1. ^ Carandini, M; Heeger, DJ (1994). "Summation and division by neurons in primate visual cortex". Science. 264 (5163): 1333–6. Bibcode:1994Sci...264.1333C. doi:10.1126/science.8191289. PMID 8191289.
  2. ^ Carandini, M; Heeger, DJ; Movshon, JA (1997). "Linearity and normalization in simple cells of the macaque primary visual cortex". Journal of Neuroscience. 17 (21): 8621–44. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.17-21-08621.1997. PMC 6573724. PMID 9334433.
  3. ^ Anderson, JS; Carandini, M; Ferster, D (2000). "Orientation tuning of input conductance, excitation, and inhibition in cat primary visual cortex". Journal of Neurophysiology. 84 (2): 909–26. doi:10.1152/jn.2000.84.2.909. PMID 10938316. S2CID 6604234.
  4. ^ Carandini, M; Ferster, D (2000). "Membrane potential and firing rate in cat primary visual cortex". Journal of Neuroscience. 20 (1): 470–84. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.20-01-00470.2000. PMC 6774139. PMID 10627623.
  5. ^ Carandini, M; Ferster, D (1997). "A tonic hyperpolarization underlying contrast adaptation in cat visual cortex". Science. 276 (5314): 949–52. doi:10.1126/science.276.5314.949. PMID 9139658.
  6. ^ Bonin, V.; Mante, V.; Carandini, M. (2005). "The Suppressive Field of Neurons in Lateral Geniculate Nucleus". Journal of Neuroscience. 25 (47): 10844–56. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3562-05.2005. PMC 6725877. PMID 16306397.
  7. ^ Carandini, M.; Demb, J. B.; Mante, V.; Tolhurst, D. J.; Dan, Y.; Olshausen, B. A.; Gallant, J. L.; Rust, N. C. (2005). "Do We Know What the Early Visual System Does?". Journal of Neuroscience. 25 (46): 10577–10597. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3726-05.2005. PMC 6725861. PMID 16291931.
  8. ^ Mante, V.; Frazor, R. A.; Bonin, V.; Geisler, W. S.; Carandini, M. (2005). "Independence of luminance and contrast in natural scenes and in the early visual system". Nature Neuroscience. 8 (12): 1690–7. doi:10.1038/nn1556. PMID 16286933. S2CID 9463723.
  9. ^ Mante, V.; Bonin, V.; Carandini, M. (2008). "Functional Mechanisms Shaping Lateral Geniculate Responses to Artificial and Natural Stimuli". Neuron. 58 (4): 625–38. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2008.03.011. PMID 18498742. S2CID 18788642.
  10. ^ Cepelewicz, Jordana. "'Noise' in the Brain Encodes Surprisingly Important Signals". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 2020-08-27.
  11. ^ Saleem, AB; Diamanti, EM; Fournier, J; Harris, KD; Carandini, M (October 2018). "Coherent encoding of subjective spatial position in visual cortex and hippocampus". Nature. 562 (7725): 124–127. Bibcode:2018Natur.562..124S. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0516-1. PMC 6309439. PMID 30202092.
  12. ^ "Researchers discover the way we see an image depends on 'where we are'". medicalxpress.com. Retrieved 2020-08-27.
  13. ^ "New Silicon Probes Record Activity of Hundreds of Neurons Simultaneously". HHMI.org. HHMI.
  14. ^ "Neuropixels probes promise new era of brain research". The Engineer. 2017-11-13. Retrieved 2020-08-27.
  15. ^ "How to make sense of the brain's billions of neurons | Wellcome". wellcome.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-08-27.
  16. ^ "Ambitious neuroscience project to probe how the brain makes decisions". the Guardian. 2017-09-19. Retrieved 2020-08-27.
  17. ^ "Coronavirus may be encouraging publishers to pursue open access". www.insidehighered.com. Retrieved 2020-08-27.
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