Prof. Dr. Laura Busse

Primary research focus: Cellular & Systems Neuroscience

Second research focus: Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience

Keywords: vision, behavioral state, feedback, normalization, thalamus

Brief research description: Visual perception does not constitute a 1:1 representation of our environment, but heavily depends on context. Context can be provided by many sources, including other sensory stimuli, behavioral goals or past experiences. What are the neural circuits of the visual system mediating such contextual processing? What is the role of feedback? We investigate these questions in the mouse model, where we measure during active behavior the activity in local neuronal circuits using high-density extracellular recordings, and causally interfere with this activity using genetic tools, such as optogenetics.

Current GSN Students: Simon Renner, Gregory Born, Yannik Bauer, Shreya Khanal, Magdalena Kautzky, Felix Schneider

Selected publications:

Kraynyukova, N., Renner, S., Born, G., Bauer, Y., Spacek, M.A., Tushev, G., Busse, L., Tchumatchenko, T. (2023). In vivo extracellular recordings of thalamic and cortical visual responses reveal V1 connectivity rules. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 119, e2207032119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2207032119

Spacek, M.A., Crombie, D., Bauer, Y., Born, G., Liu, X., Katzner, S., Busse, L. (2022). Robust effects of corticothalamic feedback and behavioral state on movie responses in mouse dLGN. eLife 11, e70469. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.70469

Born, G., Schneider-Soupiadis, F.A., Erisken, S., Vaiceliunaite, A., Lao, C.L., Mobarhan, M.H., Spacek, M.A., Einevoll, G.T., Busse, L. (2021). Corticothalamic feedback sculpts visual spatial integration in mouse thalamus. Nat Neurosci 24, 1711–1720. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-021-00943-0

Román Rosón, M., Bauer, Y., Kotkat, A.H., Berens, P., Euler, T., and Busse, L. (2019). Mouse dLGN Receives Functional Input from a Diverse Population of Retinal Ganglion Cells with Limited Convergence. Neuron 102, 462-476.e8.

Erisken, S., Vaiceliunaite, A., Jurjut, O., Fiorini, M., Katzner, S., and Busse, L. (2014). Effects of Locomotion Extend throughout the Mouse Early Visual System. Current Biology 24, 2899–2907.