Jeffrey Gavornik, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor (Biology, BME)

Email gavornik@bu.edu
Phone 617-358-0444

Areas of Interest

cortical circuits, synaptic plasticity as the basis of learning and memory, the neural representation and processing of time, the biophysical basis of visual perception

Research Areas

The basis of all cognitive function is communication between neurons in the brain. This communication is mediated by synaptic connections that are modified by experience to encode function. In order to get at the big question of “how the brain works”, I study how experience driven synaptic plasticity changes local neocortical physiology. I am particularly interested in how neural circuits are able to incorporate past experience to predictively represent spatiotemporal information.
Employing a variety of experimental and computational approaches, my lab examines how the cortical response to specific sensory stimuli change as a consequence of learning. We the use primary sensory cortices, particularly the visual cortex, as relatively accessible and interpretable regions in which to isolate the core biology responsible for coding higher-order information in less accessible neocortical areas. The goal is to elucidate the mechanistic bases of cortical processing algorithms and memory storage.

Department or Division: Biomedical Engineering

Affiliation: Primary & Affiliated Faculty

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