Michael Häusser

Biography

The Häusser group is studying how dendrites integrate the synaptic inputs that they receive and thus help to determine the input-output relationship of neurons in the mammalian brain. Techniques used include patch-clamp recordings from dendrites; imaging calcium signals in dendrites and spines using two-photon laser-scanning microscopy; and recording from multiple synaptically connected cells.We are interested in understanding computations in neural circuits of the mammalian brain. To attack this problem we work at the interface between cellular and systems neuroscience: we aim to understand the cellular toolkit that enables single neurons to perform computations, and in turn how single neurons and their patterns of connections contribute to the computations performed by the network. Our lab has a special focus on neuronal dendrites, which actively transform synaptic inputs into specific neuronal output patterns. We use the cerebellum and neocortex as model systems, combining in vitro and in vivo imaging and electrophysiology approaches, and taking advantage of a range of high-tech approaches developed in the lab. These include two-photon microscopy, patch-clamp recordings from dendrites and simultaneous recordings from multiple synaptically connected cells. Our experiments are complemented by computational models of single neurons and networks of neurons. At each stage of our work, our aim is to link different levels of brain function, in order to reveal how activity in single neurons and neural circuits encodes defined behaviours and, importantly, what kinds of changes take place within these circuits during learning.

Research Interest

Neural Computation