Description of the main areas of research:
The Vision & Action Neuroscience Laboratory (VANlab) – VANlab) conducts research in the field of Neuroscience, with a particular focus on the neural mechanisms that transform sensory information into perceptions, decisions, and goal-directed behaviors.
The laboratory’s activities are organized into three main research areas:
• Neurophysiology of cortical and subcortical visual circuits in non-human primates, with particular reference to the superior colliculus, the pulvinar, and their interactions with the cerebral cortex in the processes of visual processing, attention, visual awareness, sensorimotor integration, and control of eye movements and upper limb movements.
• Neurophysiological study of neurons characterized during wakefulness and their activity during different sleep stages, to understand the mechanisms that regulate behavioral states and the functional reorganization of brain circuits.
• Computational analysis of the activity of individual neurons and neuronal populations in humans and experimental models, using quantitative methodologies, machine learning, neural decoding, and multivariate analysis.
The laboratory integrates experimental and computational approaches to understand the principles of brain circuit function and to advance new knowledge in the fields of basic and translational Neuroscience.
The laboratory is supported by national and international organizations:
• Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF/NARSAD Young Investigator Grant) – 2021 (completed)
• PRIN 2022 – Ministry of University and Research (completed)
• FIL – Line B, University of Parma (active project)
• BIAL Foundation Grant – 2024 (active project)
Description of the main methodologies applied:
Extracellular single-unit and multi-unit electrophysiological recordings, local field potential (LFP) recordings, eye movement tracking, behavioral paradigms in non-human primates, synchronization of neurophysiological and behavioral signals, spike sorting (Kilosort4 – Phy2), multivariate statistical analysis, neural decoding, machine learning, population analysis, image (ResNET50) and video processing, and development of computational pipelines in MATLAB and Python.
Description of the main equipment:
• Multichannel systems for extracellular electrophysiological recordings (Open Ephys; 128/512 channels)
• Microelectrodes for single-unit recordings (V-probes - Plexon)
• Eye-tracking system (Oculomatic)
• Behavioral control system (MonkeyLogic - NI-National Instruments)
• Visual stimulus presentation system (PCs; SONY 55-inch 4K LCD TV monitor, 120 Hz, 3480x2160 pixels)
• Data acquisition and synchronization hardware (PCs; TV; joysticks)
• Workstation for computational analysis (256 GB RAM; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti)
• Video acquisition system (50 Hz video cameras)
• MATLAB and Python software for neurophysiological analysis
Keywords: Neuroscience of systems; Vision; Attention; Action; Sleep; Neurophysiology; Non-human primates
