Making sense of your senses

Our eyes capture the information from the world around us. But instead of transmitting this sensory input directly to the brain, substantial data pre-processing is happening already in our retina. This is achieved through specific neurons in the eye and their connections with each other. I am going to present some of our findings in identifying such neurons and the mechanisms that enable us to see distinct visual features. In addition, I will discuss the importance of visual experience during brain development for shaping the retinal processing and the consequences for the animal’s behaviour.

Smell has the reputation of being the neglected sense. However, more and more studies are showing that smell is crucial for a wide range of biological processes. The olfactory system in the brain needs to assemble correctly during development to be fully functional. In this talk, I will show you the amazing journey that mitral cells, the neurons that send odour information to different parts of the brain, undergo during development.