Prof Angus Silver

Research summary

The brain gathers information about the body and the surrounding world, allowing it to build internal representations and to plan and execute movement. My lab works on how synapses, neurons and networks transmit and process such information and perform computations. The brain areas we investigate include the cerebellum and the sensory cortex.

The main aim of our work is to develop a mechanistic understanding of brain function that links the molecular, synaptic, neuronal and network levels. This requires a multidisciplinary approach that combines the most powerful experimental and theoretical methods available. To achieve this we both develop and apply new optical methods for measuring rapid signalling in 3D and new software tools for data acquisition, analysis and modelling. Application of these new experimental and theoretical approaches allows us to link neuronal mechanisms to information processing, thereby bridging different levels of description of brain function.

Teaching summary

I run a 3rd year course entitled "The cellular basis of brain function".

Education

University College London

PhD, Physiology | 1989

Coventry Polytechnic

BSc Hons, Physical Sciences | 1986

Publications