Hamutal Slovin Lab
Neuronal Imaging Laboratory - From visual processing to perception and artificial vision
Our research is dedicated to uncovering the neural circuits and neural mechanisms underlying visual perception and visual processing. Using voltage-sensitive dye imaging and additional cutting-edge technologies, we aim to decode and reconstruct visual content from brain activity in behaving animals. We investigate artificial vision in the primary visual cortex using electrical microstimulation and optostimulation of the neuronal population.
Our long-term goals are to provide novel insights into perceptually guided behavior, facilitate the development of a useful cortical visual neuroprosthesis, and improve the treatment of visually impaired subjects.
In the media:
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Top-down and extra-retinal influences in the visual cortex revealed by voltage-sensitive dye imaging in behaving monkeys: Symposium in memory of Prof. Amiram Grinvald, Israel Academy of Science.
Link to the recorded lecture 2023
News
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Invited speaker in IGSN symposium: Behavior and Brain Dynamics – Measurements and Stimulation with light. March 2024, Bochum, Germany
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Speaker at the Israel Visual Science Society (IVSS) Conference, 2023
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Invited speaker at the symposium in memory of Prof. Amiram Grinvald, Israel Academy of Science, 15 June 2023 Link to the recorded symposium
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Invited speaker at VSS Symposia: "The Active Fovea". Lecture title: "A two-phase extraretinal input into monkey's V1: the effect of fixational saccades on population Response". In: Vision Science Society (VSS) Conference, May 2023, St. Pete. Florida, USA.
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Invited speaker at "Active Vision" Symposium. Lecture title: "The effects of fixational eye movements on population responses in V1 of monkeys: from instability of visual processing to extraretinal input." In: the 32nd CVS Symposium May 2022, Rochester NY, USA.
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Invited speaker, lecture title: "Processing shapes and surfaces: insights from the visual cortex of monkeys and mice". In: "Plasticity and dynamics in the visual system connecting genes cells and circuits" conference, May 2022, Weizmann Institute, Israel.
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Invited speaker at "Active Sensing" ISFN session. Lecture title: "Fixational eye movements and their influence on visual and perceptual processing". In: 28th ISFN annual meeting, January 2020, Eilat, Israel.
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Invited speaker, lecture title: "Neural mechanisms of visual processing and microstimulation in V1. In: "Causal Approaches in Neuroscience", 7th ESI System Neuroscience conference, August 2020, Frankfurt, Germany.
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Invited speaker at SFN mini-symposium: "Advanced Circuit and Cellular Imaging Methods in Non-Human Primates". Lecture title: "Encoding and reconstruction of surfaces and contours from V1 of behaving monkeys". In: SFN annual conference, October 2019, Chicago, IL, USA.
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Invited speaker at "The Active Vision Workshop". Lecture title: "The visual image is not stable in V1: the effects of fixational eye movements". In: The Jerusalem Brain Community, November 2019, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
Recent conferences
Research highlights
We are recruiting!
A new lab. paper 🎯 📢 with Yarden Nativ and Tomer Bouhnik: The Effect of Microsaccades in the Primary Visual Cortex: Increased Synchronization in the Fovea during a Two-Phase Response Modulation.
Our eyes are never still. Even when we attempt to fixate, the visual gaze is never motionless, as we continuously perform miniature oculomotor movements termed as fixational eye movements. The fastest eye movements during the fixation epochs are termed microsaccades (MSs), which lead to continual motion of the visual input and mainly affect neurons in the fovea. Here, we investigated the existence of an ERI to V1 fovea in macaque monkeys while they performed spontaneous MSs, during fixation. Microsaccades induced a two-phase response modulation: an early suppression followed by an enhancement. A correlation analysis revealed a widespread foveal increase in neural synchronization. Next, we investigated the MS effects in the presence of a small visual stimulus. We found that this modulation was different from the blank condition yet both modulations coexisted in the fovea. Finally, the VSD response to an external motion of the fixation point could not explain the MS modulation. These results support an ERI that may be involved in visual stabilization already at the level of V1.
