How do you make sense of what you see? The patterns of light that the eyes receive are ambiguous. Consider the wavelength of reflected light: this could either indicate the color of the reflecting surface, or that of the incident light. Our brain thus needs to actively reconstruct a representation of the objects that are present in the external world, so that we can efficiently interact with them. How the brain performs such inference computations remains unclear. This challenge goes beyond vision. Consider the myriad possible soundscapes that you may encounter. The brain must identify and locate different sound sources from the vibrations of the ear drums – a daunting task!

The Franken laboratory studies the brain circuits that perform these computations, using behavioral, electrophysiological, optical and viral targeting approaches. This research is important to better understand conditions in which these computations break down, such as schizophrenia or visual agnosia.

• Lab Website

Please find an extensive Mentoring Philosophy and Commitment to Diversity Statement on our lab website: https://sites.wustl.edu/frankenlab/mentoring/