Colloquium on the Brain & Cognition with Christopher Harvey, PhD, Harvard Medical School

Abstract: My lab seeks to understand how the cerebral cortex performs computations that underlie spatial navigation, toward an understanding of principles for cognition and intelligence. We aim to reveal mechanisms at the level of the building blocks of the nervous system and how these building blocks are organized into microcircuits and brain-wide networks. We have developed and combine a variety of approaches to measure, manipulate, and analyze neural circuits across diverse spatial and temporal scales, including technology for virtual reality, optical imaging, optogenetics, molecular sensors, and computational modeling. Our approach brings together cellular, systems, and computational levels of investigation. I will present unpublished, ongoing work in which we are using influence mapping – simultaneous cellular-resolution optogenetics and calcium imaging – to measure the causal interactions between neurons in the posterior parietal cortex during a navigation decision task. I will discuss experimental and modeling work that identifies the computations performed by this cortical area’s local microcircuits. Bio: Christopher Harvey is a Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. He did his graduate work at Cold Spring Harbor Lab and the Janelia Research Campus of HHMI with Karel Svoboda. He then did his postdoctoral research at Princeton University with David Tank. His research focuses on identifying principles for the function and organization of neural circuits in the mammalian cortex, with a main goal of understanding cellular, circuit, and systems-level mechanisms for spatial navigation and decision-making. He has contributed to the development of methods to measure, manipulate, and analyze neural circuits across spatial and temporal scales, including technology for virtual reality, optical imaging, optogenetics, intracellular electrophysiology, molecular sensors, and computational modeling. His research has been recognized by various awards, recently including the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, and the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award.