Research summary
Complex neural circuits underlie our ability to think, move, sense and feel. How these circuits arise and how wiring patterns enable function is not clear. To learn more, Dr. Krishnaswamy will investigate the neural circuits in the retina and its targets in visual thalamus to (1) define molecular recognition systems critical for circuit assembly; and (2) define their circuits, which encode visual features and integrate them with internal needs, permitting the brain to focus on the most behaviourally relevant stimuli. These studies link genes, wiring patterns and function, offering immense potential to understand how these links become broken by disease.