Correcting for self: The impact of head motion on visual processing and behaviour.

An organisms survival depends on accurately perceiving and interpreting the environment. A significant part of our visual stimulations is however generated by our own actions, rather than external events. For example, the retina can experience similar visual stimulus driven by head-movement, or by a moving object.

Therefore, self-motion related information is fundamental to contextualize visual stimuli. In other words, what the eye sees may not be what our brain perceives depending on our actions. In mammals, the vestibular system reports both the motion and orientation of the head.

Very little is known about the pathways connecting the vestibular system to visual cortical areas, and how this signal is integrated with external visual stimuli to ultimately impact behaviour.

The goal of this project is to unravel the neuronal circuits underlying visual processing during self-motion in mice, thereby providing new insights in sensory processing.

To this aim, I will address the following questions: 1) What is the long-range and local connectivity of neurons modulated by head rotation in V1; 2) What are the circuit mechanisms and neuronal computations involved in the integration of self-motion related signals with visual inputs in V1; 3) How do head motion inputs to V1 influence visually-guided actions during behaviour.

Achieving these goals relies on a multidisciplinary experimental strategy based on cutting-edge approaches to monitor and control circuit activity with high spatio-temporal resolution in a cell-type specific manner, neuroanatomical tracing, and computational modelling.

This experimental strategy combined with my research background in visual and vestibular systems provides a unique opportunity to understand unexplored aspects of sensory processing, at both the cellular and systems levels.

Altogether, this project will reveal a novel framework to understand how sensory processing operates during self-motion to guide behaviour.