The longstanding “divisive normalization theory” was developed to explain how neurons in a circuit modulate each other’s activity. Although the divisive normalization theory describes a wide range of empirical data collected across species and brain areas, neuroscientists have had trouble tying the theory to circuit and cellular mechanisms and to quantify its impact on neural coding and behavior. 

Ruben Coen-Cagli, Ph.D., has received a three-year, $1.2 million National Institutes of Health grant to assess the mechanisms and the functional relevance of divisive normalization. To do so, his lab will develop statistical and computational tools that will allow his team and collaborators to precisely monitor and perturb normalization from single neurons to large neural populations. The research will pave the way for future quantitative and causal studies of normalization’s mechanisms and their impact on behavior.

Dr. Coen-Cagli is an associate professor of systems & computational biology, of ophthalmology and visual sciences, and in the Dominick P. Purpura Department Purpura of Neuroscience at Einstein. (1RF1DA056400-01A1)