Feldheim Lab

Integration of stimuli of different modalities that occur in the same place and time improves our ability to identify and respond to objects. This type of sensory integration is an important brain function, and its deficits are known symptoms of patients with autism, schizophrenia, and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Therefore, understanding how multisensory integration (MSI) develops and functions will allow us to better understand and treat these diseases.

The Feldheim lab aims to understand how sensory information is processed and integrated using the mouse superior colliculus as our model. The superior colliculus is a midbrain sensory integrative structure that contains a topographic representation of visual space in its superficial layers (sSC), that is aligned with maps of auditory and somatosensory space in its deeper layers (dSC). SC circuitry uses this information, which can be modulated by the state of the animal, to determine saliency, and to initiate motor commands for orientating and escaping behaviors, such as eye/head/ear movements toward stimuli that need attention, flight or freezing in response to a threat, and predatory attack.

The overall goal of the Feldheim lab is to determine the mechanisms used to develop this brain circuitry and to determine the physiological, and ultimately, the behavioral consequences of disrupting these mechanisms.