UR Faculty: Greg DeAngelis

	Greg DeAngelis Professor: Brain and Cognitive Sciences Biomedical Engineering Neurobiology and Anatomy
Research: Visual neuroscience; multi-sensory integration; neural coding; linking neurons to perception
Contact Information: E-Mail: gdeangelis@cvs.rochester.edu
University of Rochester	245 Meliora Hall Office Phone: (585)275-8677 Mobile Phone: (314)518-1416 Fax: (585) 271-3043

Research Overview

My laboratory studies cortical circuits that mediate visual perception and visually guided behavior. This work involves a creative fusion of the disciplines of neurophysiology, psychology, and computation. Monkeys are trained to perform demanding discrimination tasks, and we record from single or multiple neurons in visual cortex during performance of these tasks. This allows us to directly compare the ability of neurons to discriminate between different sensory stimuli with the ability of the behaving animal to make the same discrimination. This approach also allows us to examine the relationship between neuronal activity and perceptual decisions. In addition, the techniques of electrical microstimulation and/or reversible inactivation are used to establish causal links between physiology and behavior. Computational modeling plays an important role in interpreting results and guiding future experimentation.

Our research currently has two main foci: 1) Neural mechanisms of depth perception. The image formed on each retina is a two-dimensional projection of the three-dimensional (3D) world. Objects at different depths project onto slightly disparate points on the two retinas, and the brain is able to extract these binocular disparities from the retinal images and construct a vivid sensation of depth. My lab studies the mechanisms by which binocular disparity information is encoded, processed, and read out by the brain in order to perceive depth and compute 3D surface structure. We have also recently discovered a population of neurons that combines visual motion with eye movement signals to code depth from motion parallax, thus constituting a new neural mechanism for coding depth. Future work will focus on how depth cues from disparity and motion parallax are integrated by neurons. 2) Sensory integration for self-motion perception. To accurately perceive our own motion through space, we integrate information from the visual and vestibular systems. Because visual and vestibular signals originate in different spatial frames of reference and with different temporal dynamics, an interesting set of computations must occur in order for these cues to be combined perceptually. Using a 3D virtual reality system to provide monkeys with naturalistic combinations of visual stimuli and inertial motion, we are studying how cortical neurons integrate visual and vestibular signals to compute one's direction of heading through 3D space.

Relevant Publications

Pub Med Citations

Gu Y, DeAngelis GC, Angelaki DE (2007): A functional link between area MSTd and heading perception based on vestibular signals. Nature Neuroscience, In press.

Fetsch CR, Wang S, Gu Y, DeAngelis GC, Angelaki DE (2007): Spatial reference frames of visual, vestibular, and multimodal heading signals in the dorsal subdivision of the medial superior temporal area. Journal of Neuroscience, 27: 700-712.

Uka T, DeAngelis GC (2006): Linking neural representation to function in stereoscopic depth perception: roles of the middle temporal area in coarse vs. fine disparity discrimination. Journal of Neuroscience, 26:6791-6802.

Gu Y, Watkins PV, Angelaki DE, DeAngelis GC (2006): Visual and non-visual contributions to three-dimensional heading selectivity in medial superior temporal area. Journal of Neuroscience, 26:73-85.

Nover H, Anderson CH, DeAngelis GC (2005): A logarithmic, scale-invariant representation of speed in macaque middle temporal area accounts for speed discrimination performance. Journal of Neuroscience, 25: 10049-10060.

Uka T, DeAngelis GC (2004): Contribution of area MT to stereoscopic depth perception: choice-related response modulations reflect task strategy. Neuron, 42: 297-310.

DeAngelis GC, Newsome, WT (2004): Perceptual read-out of conjoined direction and disparity maps in macaque area MT. PLoS Biology, 2(3): 394-404.

Uka T, DeAngelis GC (2003): Contribution of middle temporal area to coarse depth discrimination: comparison of neuronal and psychophysical sensitivity. Journal of Neuroscience, 23:3515-3530.

Cumming B.G and DeAngelis GC (2001): The physiology of steropsis. Annual Review of Neuroscience. 24:203-238

DeAngelis GC, Cumming BG and Newsome WT (1998): Cortical area MT and the perception of stereoscopic depth. Nature 394:677-680.

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