Welcome to the Feldman Lab. We are a neuroscience research group at UC Berkeley studying the function of neural circuits in the cerebral cortex.

How do neural circuits in the brain’s cerebral cortex process sensory information for perception and learning, and how does this break down in neurological disease? Our lab seeks to answer these questions by studying cortical function at the synaptic, circuit, and systems neuroscience levels. We study how cortical circuits encode sensory information, adapt to experience, and store information during learning. We investigate the cellular and circuit mechanisms for brain plasticity, and the homeostatic mechanisms that maintain proper cortical function across age and experience. We study principles of neural coding and its neural circuit basis. Beyond this basic science discovery, we apply our understanding of cortical function to develop new insights into how cortical circuit function goes awry in autism spectrum disorders.

Approaches include synaptic physiology, 2-photon calcium imaging, dense in vivo spike recordings, optogenetics, and quantitative sensory behavior. The model system is the somatosensory cortex of rodents, which is a leading system for understanding cortical neuron and circuit function and plasticity (e.g., Feldmeyer 2007, Diamond et al., 2008, Feldman 2009, Feldman 2012).

Our lab is part of UC Berkeley’s Department of Neuroscience, and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. Our research is supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI).