Louis Toth

Louis Toth holds a SB in Aeronautical Engineering, and a Ph.D. from the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, both at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Working under Mriganka Sur, Dr. Toth used various techniques to study plasticity in the adult mammalian visual system. These techniques included single-unit recording, histology of functional maps, direct imaging of intrinsic signals, and in vivo whole cell recording. Dr. Toth completed postdoctoral work with John Assad in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. His work there, using single-unit recording in trained primates, involved studying how, at a neuronal level, a learned behavior influences the processing of sensory stimuli — in other words, how do individual neurons influence which of many behavioral outputs is produced upon receiving a certain sensory stimulus. Dr. Toth has also been a Visiting Assistant Professor for the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research at the University of Minnesota, where he has applied novel high-field MRI techniques to study neural activity.

Dr. Toth joined the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology as faculty in 2002. Research in his lab focuses on the physiology of information transmission in the normal mammalian brain. Dr. Toth uses imaging techniques; optical imaging in his own lab, and MRI techniques in collaboration with the Center for Biological Imaging. Dr. Toth teaches as lecturer, lab instructor and course co-director for Medical Histology (AN700), conducts graduate level corses in Visual Neurophysiology (AN 709) and in Neural Development and Plasticity (AN 807), and looks forward to teaching in the new Masters in Biomedical Imaging program.