Our Goal

Our work is driven by the overarching idea that the brain is an organ of computation, and that the most useful way to understand a brain system or a neuron is in terms of what and how it computes. Our main focus therefore is what and how the cerebellum computes.

For many years we combined experimental studies using eyelid conditioning, with computer simulations of the cerebellum. Eyelid conditioning allows us to control inputs to the cerebellum while monitoring output. This approach also provides a biologically relevant way to evaluate the performance of the simulations – we can give it inputs that happen during eyelid conditioning training, and decades of behavioral work provide quantitative constraints on what the output should be.

Currently, our focus is on these simulations and related theoretical work. Now that the simulation successfully mimics the key behavioral properties of eyelid conditioning, we can address why the cerebellum has the features that it does. From this work we hope more general computational principles can emerge.

Lab Statement

This is an idea-driven lab. We work hard to create an environment where lab members can hear, critique and debate ideas of others and where members can offer ideas of their own. The goal is that this increases the overall quality of ideas while giving lab members experience in how science works and how good ideas are created. We’re better as a team than we are as individuals.