Abstract:

Our sensory pathways extract information from the complex world within which we live, and help us to perceive relevant inputs, make decisions, and take action. Our laboratory has extensively investigated representations and transformations across different stages of sensory signaling in the brain, specifically focusing on the thalamocortical circuitry that serves as an inflection point of complexity between the sensory periphery and the brain structures that underlie perception.  One theme that emerges across this body of work is that of adaptation: behaviors and the neural signaling that underlies them are constantly adapting in response to changes in the environment across a wide range of time scales. I will briefly highlight past work and discuss this perspective in more detail in the context of recent experience-dependent, reward-driven behavioral studies. Finally, I will discuss technology development of our laboratory for real-time, bi-directional adaptive interaction with neuronal circuitry for both basic discovery and practical applications.

Biography:  

Garrett B. Stanley is the McCamish Distinguished Chaired Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. Garrett received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering with highest honors from Georgia Tech in 1992, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering (dynamics and controls) from the University of California at Berkeley in 1995 and 1997, respectively. From 1997 to 1999, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Neuroscience Division of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California at Berkeley.  In 1999, he joined the faculty of the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, where until 2007 he was an Associate Professor of Bioengineering and an active member of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST).  In 2008, he joined the faculty in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology & Emory University, where he has been since.  His research interests include information processing in sensory pathways, neural coding, computational neuroscience, and control theory applied to neuroscience.  His research program provides a unique combination of engineering-driven research in sensory function rooted in the basic science of neural circuitry and experimental neuroscience. In 2015, he became a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.  He is Director of the McCamish Parkinson’s Disease Innovation Program and Co-Director of the Georgia Tech/Emory University Neural Engineering Center.

~ BME Host: Krishna Jayant ~

ZOOM LINK: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86969595218?pwd=XsMjbMbSb50hkziRubN0v0baNQ6EfY.1

*Note: Students enrolled in the seminar course are expected to attend in person.

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