How Expectation Changes Our Perception of Reality
Train mice to navigate in a virtual reality environment and monitor how experience in a virtual maze alters visually evoked brain activity.
Project description
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Our visual system adapts to quickly recognize contextual cues associated with rewarding outcomes. Based on experience and context, the same object can evoke different visual responses in the brain. That is because internally generated signals can alter how external signals are perceived. This type of adaptation is sometimes referred to as 'predictive coding'. In this project, undergraduate researchers will have the opportunity to train mice in a virtual reality task, improve and manipulate the virtual mazes that we use, and to assist in recording visually-evoked responses in the brains of mice using state-of-the art microscopy. The current project goal is to determine whether internally generated 'reward-expectation' signals improve behavioral performance.
Project outcome
Students will present project results in either a poster format or written document. Students will also have an opportunity to participate in weekly lab meetings. The student is expected to generate a graph of data collected, interpret the data, as well as provide a rationale for why the data was collected and generate a conclusion. Optional: the student is encouraged to describe 1-2 implications of their work.
Project details
| Length of commitment | About 3-5 months |
| Start time | Anytime |
| In-person, remote, or hybrid? | In-Person Project |
| Level of collaboration | Small group project (2-3 students) |
| Benefits | Academic credit |
| Who is eligible | Sophomores & juniors who have a desire to work with small rodent and have taken at least one neuroscience-related course |
Core partners
- This project is lead by a Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. student in collaboration with a research technician with expertise in psychology, and the lab PI Dr. Sandra Kuhlman. The lab is located in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
Project mentor
Sandra Kuhlman
Associate Professor
Physiology and Biophysics
Phone: (716) 887-2915
Email: skuhlman@buffalo.edu
Start the project
- Email the project mentor using the contact information above to express your interest and get approval to work on the project. (Here are helpful tips on how to contact a project mentor.)
- After you receive approval from the mentor to start this project, click the button to start the digital badge. (Learn more about ELN's digital badge options.)
Preparation activities
Once you begin the digital badge series, you will have access to all the necessary activities and instructions. Your mentor has indicated they would like you to also complete the specific preparation activities below. Please reference this when you get to Step 2 of the Preparation Phase.
The student needs to complete CITI animal training, read the attached research paper, and ask three questions about the attached paper.
Keywords
physiology, virtual reality, neuroscience, biomedical