Sam Solomon

Lab head

I am interested in the work done by the eye and the brain to analyse the visual world and support visual perception. I'm particularly interested in the way that basic properties of networks of nerve cells at each level of the visual pathway determine visual sensitivity. In physiological experiments the functional properties of individual neurons and groups of neurons are studied. In perceptual experiments the sensitivity of human observers is studied. I use computational models to link these two sets of observations.

Sara de Leo

UCL-Birkbeck MRC PhD student 

Lauren Strickland

BBSRC LiDO PhD student 

I am a PhD student, funded by the London Interdisciplinary Doctoral Programme (LIDo). Every day, humans and animals make thousands of decisions based on what we see. Often, the way we perceive and value visual stimuli is heavily dependent on information we have previously learned, and the context we find ourselves in, which in turn influences the choices we make. I am interested in the confluence of vision and reward processing in the brain, particularly in the context of decision making.  What are the neural mechanisms used to integrate incoming visual information with prior knowledge of reward value of options? How does this develop and change across learning and if tasks/options change?

The superior colliculus (SC) is a key midbrain visual processing centre, and has connections with various dopaminergic regions responsible for reward processing. As such, these pathways are strong candidates to play critical roles in guiding this behaviour. The exact relationship between these regions, and how they may be interacting to influence behaviour, however, is poorly understood. To address this, in my PhD project I am imaging and manipulating the SC and associated dopaminergic regions of mice during visually-guided, reward-driven tasks

Joanna Holeniewska

Lab manager, research technician