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Professor Hirsch's research explores vision and how the brain translates the dappled images it receives from the eye's retina into a coherent perception of the visual world.
Researching the earliest stages of visual processing in the cerebral cortex, her lab specifically examines how connections between the thalamus and cortex and circuits within the striate cortex itself resolve basic features of the visual scene.
Hirsch approaches these questions using whole-cell recording with dye-filled electrodes from the thalamus and the cortex in vivo. This technique allows her to resolve synaptic integration during vision and ultimately correlate physiological response with anatomical profile.
Professor Hirsch is currently investigating contributions of different types of inhibitory cell to specific properties like orientation tuning and to global mechanisms like the regulation of the excitability. Additionally, in collaboration with colleagues, she has begun to integrate her biological studies in concert with computational models of visual function.
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