Scholar Profile

Gilles J. Laurent

Professor
Division of Biology, 139-74
California Institute of Technology
1201 E. California Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91125
Voice: 626-395-2798
Fax: 626-844-4514
Email: laurentg@its.caltech.edu
Personal Homepage
1990 Searle Scholar

Research Interests

We are interested in information coding in the brain and in the design principles of circuits involved in processing sensory information. We are particularly interested in understanding the role of time, synchronization and oscillations in information coding and in relating the biophysical properties of neurons and synapses to the function of the networks in which they are embedded. We therefore study the cellular, synaptic and network aspects of neural processing, and focus our research on four different model systems: The olfactory system of insects (antennal lobes and mushroom bodies, circuits analogous to the vertebrate olfactory bulbs and anterior/posterior piriform cortices); The olfactory bulb of rats; The olfactory bulb of zebrafish; The motion sensitive part of the visual system of insects. Our work combines experimental (behavioral and electrophysiological) and modeling techniques and aims at understanding functional aspects of brain circuits design and the rules of information coding used by the nervous system.