How does our brain make sense of the world?
Every motion (“ACTION”) alters the relation between our sensors and the environment thereby creating re-afferent sensory input also called sensory feedback (“PERCEPTION”). If purposefully used, motion can thus be a crucial tool to optimize the sensing process since it allows to change and adjust the sensory input that the nervous system ultimately has to analyze. Therefore sensing behavior is the first integrated step in sensing and it it is tailored to both the contextual demands of the behavioral task at hand as well as the demands and tuning of the nervous system (“INTEGRATION”) it can increase sensorimotor performance.
Being interested in how our brain achieves these different levels of sensing, I work on the electrosensory system of weakly electric fish. My research focuses on strategies of neuronal encoding and processing, as well as on the question how behavior is used to enhance sensing performance.
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contact me:
Dr. Volker Hofmann McGill University | Department of Physiology |
Volker Hofmann 