Dr. Scott Pluta, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, will be presenting  a seminar entitled"Cortical circuits mediating active sensation." 

Active sensation is the process by which animals guide their external sensors to both generate and refine an internal representation of their environment. Fundamental to this representation is the localization of objects in space.  My research has discovered how cortical circuits in the somatosensory cortex govern the neural representation of space during active touch. Using cell-type specific optogenetic tools, we were able to tease apart the physiological significance of key components in the cortical microcircuit.  These data have shed new light and challenge existing dogma on processes fundamental to sensory perception.