Ann was awarded this grant for her work on emergent neural function and the natural world. “We are constantly responding to signals in our environment, such as patterns of light intensity, acoustic pressure waves, and chemical signals. The brain encodes these signals in the activity patterns of billions of individual neurons. I am interested in understanding how neurons coordinate with one another to represent these signals, and how these representations in turn support collective functionality, such as the ability to track a moving object or distinguish different smells. By studying the interplay between natural signals and the neurons that encode these signals, we can gain insight into why the brain is organized as it is, and how this organization enables us to function in a complex and dynamic world” said Dr. Hermundstad.
For more information, please read the article at: http://www.bwfund.org/newsroom/announcements/bwf-commits-225-million-advancing-biomedical-research-0