How do place cells learn about the environment? It has long been known that the place cells use visual information such as landmarks and optic flow. But how the visual information is being transformed from an representation as seen by the eyes (egocentric) into representation of the world (allocentric) in the hippocampal formation is as yet unknown. By simultaneously recording from a large population of neurons in the two areas we are addressing some of these questions.

Related publications:

Saleem, Diamanti, et al, Nature, 2018

Vision is one of the most commonly studied areas of the brain. However, our understanding of vision is limited to when one is sitting in a fixed spot. Little is know about vision during movements such as walking or navigation.

Related publications:

Saleem et al, Nat Neuro, 2013

Ayaz et al, Curr Biol, 2013

Saleem et al, Neuron, 2017

Many naturalistic visual stimuli cause an almost instinctive behavioural response. For example, an object looming towards our eye causes us to instinctively blink. Such responses are innate and do not require any learning. In collaboration with the Solomon Lab, we explore 'visually evoked' behavioural responses in rodents, and investigate the neural underpinnings of such innate behaviours. (More Info)

Related publications:

De Franchesci, Vivattanarsarn, Saleem*, Solomon*, Current Biology, (2016).

Saleem*, Longden*, et al, Journal of Neuroscience (2012).

With new technologies we now are able to record simultaneously from large populations of neurons from single or multiple areas. Part of our research focus is to understand how signals regarding the world are encoded by populations of neurons.

Related publications:

Rossant, Kadir, et al, Nat Neuro, 2016

Schovinck et al, J Neurosci, 2015

Saleem, et al, Nat Neuro, 2013; 

Benucci et al, Nat Neuro, 2013; 

Busse et al, J Neurosci, 2011;