We study how local circuits in the cerebral cortex encode and transform sensory information. We use mouse auditory cortex as a model system to investigate how cellular and network properties shape cortical responses to a continuous and temporally complex stream of sensory data.

Research in the Wehr Lab combines aspects of cellular, systems, and computational neuroscience, by using the tools of molecular biology and cellular physiology to address systems-level questions. Using a variety of approaches, including in vivo whole cell recordings, high-density electrophysiology in behaving animals, mesoscopic 2-photon imaging, optogenetics, quantitative behavior, and computational modeling, we are trying to identify the cellular, synaptic, and network mechanisms with which cortical circuits process auditory information, leading ultimately to our perceptual experiences of acoustic streams, such as music and speech.