Prof. J.A.F. Heimel (Alexander)

J. Alexander Heimel is an expert in the neurobiology of vision. His goal is to understand how vision is turned into action by instinct or learning. To find an answer to this question, he and his lab measure the responses of neurons in mice using a combination of techniques, such as large-scale electrophysiology and calcium imaging using two-photon microscopy and micro-endoscopy. They also selectively perturb visual processing by optogenetic, chemogenetic and pharmacological means to investigate the neural circuitry underlying vision. Brain areas that are actively being explored by Heimel and his team are the visual cortex and thalamus, the superior colliculus, the zona incerta and the periaqueductal gray.