Research

My name is Michael Kohl: I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience. My research focuses on how neural activity in primary sensory cortices integrates with activity in a higher order cortex, such as the retrosplenial cortex. We combine theoretical studies to make quantitative predictions about population codes and their information content to help us guide experiments. We also continue to develop novel experimental tools and analysis approaches.

Our ongoing research is broadly focused on three projects:

• Role of interneurons in somatosensory perception: We study how different types of inhibitory interneurons are optimised for controlling neural codes.
• Role of hippocampus and retrosplenial cortex in associative memory: We study the interplay of hippocampus and sensory cortices with the retrosplenial cortex during the formation and retrieval of associative memories.
• Tool development: We develop novel approaches for recording and manipulating the function of large populations of neurons.

For more about my research please visit my lab wepgae (link above).

Biography

I received a B.Sc in Neuroscience (2005) from University College London, and, as part of the Wellcome Trust Oxford Ion Channel Initiative, a D.Phil in Physiology (2009) from the University of Oxford. I carried out my postdoctoral studies at the University of Cambridge and Stanford University (2010-2011) and the University of California, Berkeley (2012-2013). I became an Early Career Research Fellow at the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics in 2013 and University Research Lecturer in 2018. I took up a Senior Lectureship in Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow in 2018.