The Laurent laboratory is interested in the behavior, dynamics and emergent properties of neural systems (typically, networks of interacting neurons or neuron populations), especially as these properties relate to neural coding and sensory representation. The lab focuses principally on olfactory and visual areas, combining experiments, quantitative analysis and modeling techniques. They use “simpler” experimental systems such as the brains of insects, fish and reptiles to facilitate the identification, mechanistic characterization and computational description of functional principles.
The lab’s research is centered on neurophysiological approaches and on experimental data. We combine single-cell electrophysiological techniques (whole-cell patch-clamp, intracellular, extracellular recordings), in vivo tetrode recordings, imaging (intrinsic, calcium, multi-photon) with modern molecular techniques (viral infections and gene transfer, photo-activation and silencing).