Electrosensory Signal Processing Lab
Mark E. Nelson (m-nelson at illinois.edu)
This is an ARCHIVE of nelson.beckman.illinois.edu; the lab closed in 2019 when Prof. Nelson retired.
Beckman InstituteNeuroscience Program
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Our research is focused on active sensory acquisition. We seek to understand neural mechanisms and computational principles that animals use to actively acquire sensory information in complex, dynamic environments. We are interested in systems-level integration and interactions of:
- neural coding and spike train statistics
- sensory signal detection and estimation
- active repositioning of sensor arrays
- multiresolution adaptive filtering
- processing of clustered sensory signals
- generation and subtraction of sensory expectation
We study these processes in the electrosensory system of weakly electric fish, using a combination of behavioral, electrophysiological, and computational neuroscience approaches.