Biography:Tom Mrsic-Flogel

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Short description: Experimental neuroscientist
Tom Mrsic-Flogel
Photograph of Tom Mrsic-Flogel.jpg
EducationB.A. Biological Sciences

M.Sc. Neuroscience

D.Phil. Neuroscience
Alma materOxford University
OccupationProfessor of Neuroscience & Director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre
EmployerUniversity College London
Spouse(s)Sonja Hofer
WebsiteMrsic-Flogel Lab

Tom Mrsic-Flogel is an experimental neuroscientist. He is Director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre and a Professor in Neuroscience at University College London (UCL).[1] Mrsic-Flogel is a founding member of the International Brain Laboratory.[2]

Mrsic-Flogel’s research focuses on establishing mechanistic accounts of brain function, including how brain areas communicate and contribute to perception, cognition and learning.[3][4][5] His research has potential implications for psychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia[6] and future applications in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).[7][8]

Education and career

Mrsic-Flogel received his undergraduate degree and PhD in 2001 from Oxford University. He completed postdoctoral work with Tobias Bonhoeffer at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology (since 2023 named Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence) in Munich. In 2007, he became Lecturer and Wellcome Trust Fellow at UCL, after which he was appointed as Professor at the University of Basel.[9]

Since 2016, Mrsic-Flogel has been Director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, an independently-funded neuroscience institute (Gatsby Charitable Foundation and Wellcome) opened in 2014 and hosted by UCL.[10]

Research and work

Mrsic-Flogel is known for detailing the wiring principles of the brain’s networks and how these relate to their function.[11] His work has used new approaches to measure individual synaptic connections between brain cells of known function, and molecular anatomy tools, to show the extent of influence of individual neurons on the rest of the brain.[12]

Through his research in the visual cortex, Mrsic-Flogel discovered that synaptic connections are not organized randomly but are structured according to several specific wiring principles:

  • Neurons preferentially connect if they are tuned to the same feature of visual stimuli and only if they project to the same target structure.[11][13][14]
  • Strong and reciprocal connections are found solely between neurons with the most correlated activity, while only weak connections link neurons that are uncorrelated.[15][16][17]
  • The more connections a neuron receives from its neighbours, the closer it tracks their activity.[18][19]

Mrsic-Flogel has demonstrated how the wiring of neural circuits is adjusted through experience and learning.[20] His work has shown how circuits are optimally tuned to the statistical regularities of the natural world[21] and how learning can further refine neural circuits in the adult brain.[22]

Mrsic-Flogel’s current lab studies how the brain makes decisions by combining sensory information with previously learned knowledge.[23] Research from the Mrsic-Flogel lab has revealed how visual working memory in mice is maintained across interconnected brain regions.[24]

Scientists in the Mrsic-Flogel lab have shed light on how the brain represents causally-controlled objects.[25][26] More recently, the Mrsic-Flogel lab investigated how individual neurons in mice are influenced by two different cognitive and behavioural states – attention and running – that were once thought to share a common mechanism. They found that spatial attention and running influence neurons independently with different dynamics.[27][28]

Awards

  • Larry Katz Prize for Innovative Research in Neuroscience 2015[29]
  • Wellcome Senior Research Fellow 2011[30]
  • Wellcome Research Career Development Fellow 2007[31]
  • Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship 2003–04[32]

Memberships

  • Chair of the Programme Committee (2016–2018) and a member of the Executive Committee for the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS)[33][34]
  • Founding member of the International Brain Laboratory[35]
  • Directorial Search Committee member, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience[32]
  • Chair of the Scientific Advisory Council for the Allen Institute’s new Institute for Neural Dynamics[5]
  • Faculty of Life Sciences Executive Committee, University College London[36]
  • Founding Member, ALBA Network, promoting equality and diversity in Brain Sciences in Europe[37]
  • Co-founder of the European Network of Visual Neuroscientists ‘EuroVision’[38]

References

  1. ↑ "Tom Mrsic-Flogel". https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/people/tom-mrsic-flogel. 
  2. ↑ "Our Team — International Brain Laboratory". https://www.internationalbrainlab.com/our-team#general-assembly. 
  3. ↑ "Thomas Mrsic-Flogel – Google Scholar". https://scholar.google.ch/citations?user=FRTF81gAAAAJ&hl=en. 
  4. ↑ Kelland, Kate (11 April 2011). "Scientists unravel brain's complexity &rsaquo". News in Science (ABC Science). https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/04/11/3187823.htm. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Tom Mrsic-Flogel – Allen Institute". https://alleninstitute.org/person/tom-mrsic-flogel/. 
  6. ↑ Makin, Simon (30 Mar 2018). ""Bar Codes" Could Map Errant Brain Wiring in Autism and Schizophrenia". Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/barcodes-could-trace-errant-brain-wiring-in-autism-and-schizophrenia/. 
  7. ↑ "Mice taught to guide computer mouse with brain activity". Engineering and Technology. 23 Dec 2020. https://eandt.theiet.org/2020/12/23/mice-taught-guide-computer-mouse-brain-activity. 
  8. ↑ Woodyatt, Amy (3 Dec 2020). "Experimental brain implants in monkeys offer hope for restoring vision in blind people". CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/03/europe/brain-implant-blind-intl-scli-scn/index.html. 
  9. ↑ "Thomas Mrsic-Flogel". https://www.simonsfoundation.org/people/thomas-mrsic-flogel/. 
  10. ↑ "Sainsbury Wellcome Centre appoints new Director". UCL News. 10 Oct 2016. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2016/oct/sainsbury-wellcome-centre-appoints-new-director. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Ko, Ho; Hofer, Sonja B.; Pichler, Bruno; Buchanan, Katherine A.; Sjöström, P. Jesper; Mrsic-Flogel, Thomas D. (2011). "Functional specificity of local synaptic connections in neocortical networks". Nature 473 (7345): 87–91. doi:10.1038/nature09880. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 21478872. 
  12. ↑ Okun, Michael; Steinmetz, Nicholas; Cossell, Lee; Iacaruso, M. Florencia; Ko, Ho; Barthó, Péter; Moore, Tirin; Hofer, Sonja B. et al. (2015). "Diverse coupling of neurons to populations in sensory cortex". Nature 521 (7553): 511–515. doi:10.1038/nature14273. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 25849776. 
  13. ↑ Lindsay, Grace (8 Feb 2019). "Some Neurons Break the Fire-Together, Wire-Together Rule". Simons Foundation – Global Brain News. https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2019/02/08/some-neurons-break-the-fire-together-wire-together-rule/. 
  14. ↑ "Neurons that fire together, don't always wire together". 8 Nov 2018. https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/research-news/neurons-fire-together-dont-always-wire-together. 
  15. ↑ Cossell, Lee; Iacaruso, Maria Florencia; Muir, Dylan R.; Houlton, Rachael; Sader, Elie N.; Ko, Ho; Hofer, Sonja B.; Mrsic-Flogel, Thomas D. (2015). "Functional organization of excitatory synaptic strength in primary visual cortex". Nature 518 (7539): 399–403. doi:10.1038/nature14182. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 25652823. 
  16. ↑ "The brain's social network: Nerve cells interact like friends on Facebook". 5 Feb 2015. https://www.unibas.ch/en/News-Events/News/Uni-Research/The-brain-s-social-network--Nerve-cells-interact-like-friends-on-Facebook.html. 
  17. ↑ "Quality over Quantity: synaptic strength an important factor in neuronal relationships". https://www.scientifica.uk.com/research-news/quality-over-quantity-synaptic-strength-an-important-factor-in-neuronal-relationships. 
  18. ↑ "New Barcode-Based Tracing Method Uncovers the Logic of Single Neuron Projections". Technology Networks. 29 Mar 2018. https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/news/new-barcode-based-tracing-method-uncovers-the-logic-of-single-neuron-projections-299195. 
  19. ↑ Han, Yunyun; Kebschull, Justus M.; Campbell, Robert A. A.; Cowan, Devon; Imhof, Fabia; Zador, Anthony M.; Mrsic-Flogel, Thomas D. (2018). "The logic of single-cell projections from visual cortex". Nature 556 (7699): 51–56. doi:10.1038/nature26159. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 29590093. 
  20. ↑ Poort, Jasper; Khan, Adil G.; Pachitariu, Marius; Nemri, Abdellatif; Orsolic, Ivana; Krupic, Julija; Bauza, Marius; Sahani, Maneesh et al. (2015). "Learning Enhances Sensory and Multiple Non-sensory Representations in Primary Visual Cortex". Neuron 86 (6): 1478–1490. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2015.05.037. ISSN 1097-4199. PMID 26051421. 
  21. ↑ Pecka, Michael; Han, Yunyun; Sader, Elie; Mrsic-Flogel, Thomas D. (2014). "Experience-dependent specialization of receptive field surround for selective coding of natural scenes". Neuron 84 (2): 457–469. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2014.09.010. ISSN 1097-4199. PMID 25263755. 
  22. ↑ "Disentangling the interneuron web of learning". 21 May 2018. https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/research-news/disentangling-interneuron-web-learning. 
  23. ↑ "Mrsic-Flogel lab". https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/groups/mrsic-flogel-lab. 
  24. ↑ Voitov, Ivan; Mrsic-Flogel, Thomas D. (2022). "Cortical feedback loops bind distributed representations of working memory". Nature 608 (7922): 381–389. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05014-3. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 35896749. 
  25. ↑ Clancy, Kelly B.; Mrsic-Flogel, Thomas D. (2021). "The sensory representation of causally controlled objects". Neuron 109 (4): 677–689.e4. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2020.12.001. ISSN 1097-4199. PMID 33357383. 
  26. ↑ Berman, Robby (23 Dec 2020). "Mice with brain-machine interfaces help scientists understand "intentional control"". Big Think. https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/mouse-clancy-interface/. 
  27. ↑ Kanamori, Takahiro; Mrsic-Flogel, Thomas D. (2022). "Independent response modulation of visual cortical neurons by attentional and behavioral states". Neuron 110 (23): 3907–3918.e6. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2022.08.028. ISSN 1097-4199. PMID 36137550. 
  28. ↑ "Attention and Running Influence Individual Brain Cells Independently". 22 Sep 2022. https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/news/abnormal-good-cholesterol-levels-linked-to-dementia-risk-381604. 
  29. ↑ "Sainsbury Wellcome Centre appoints new Director". 10 Oct 2016. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2016/oct/sainsbury-wellcome-centre-appoints-new-director. 
  30. ↑ Kaplan, Karen (15 Feb 2012). "Funding: Got to get a grant". https://www.nature.com/articles/nj7385-429a. 
  31. ↑ "Support for the brightest minds". Dec 2011. https://wellcome.org/sites/default/files/wtvm053884.pdf. 
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 "Assessment of Research Quality". https://storage.knaw.nl/2022-07/KNAW-NIN_1_research_assessment_report.pdf. 
  33. ↑ "Thomas Mrsic-Flogel". https://www.fens.org/news-activities/news/committee-members/thomas-mrsic-flogel. 
  34. ↑ "The Programme Committee". https://www.fens.org/about-fens/our-organisation/fens-committees/programme-committee. 
  35. ↑ "Virtual brain lab brings together world-leading neuroscientists". 19 Sep 2017. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2017/sep/virtual-brain-lab-brings-together-world-leading-neuroscientists. 
  36. ↑ "Tom Mrsic-Flogel Profile | University College London". https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/7548. 
  37. ↑ "ALBA team | Alba Network". https://www.alba.network/team. 
  38. ↑ "Sunposium 2017". https://www.maxplanckflorida.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Digital-Sunposium-Mag-2017.pdf. 



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