Natural intelligence

Interdisciplinary research is an essential element of UCL's research success, adding wider understanding and greater depth to research that impacts directly on global issues.

At UCL's Laboratory of Natural Intelligence, based in the UK's largest department of psychology, physicists and psychologists work side by side to understand the complex mechanisms of the brain.

Dr Zhaoping Li, Head of the Laboratory, says: "While great strides have been made in the analysis of the brain, in areas such as neuroscience and cognitive science, the progress would be significantly faster with more contributions of theoretical methods and thinking, which are relatively weak in this field. The possibilities for greater interactions between experimental neuroscience and the workings of physics are endless."

Dr Li is one of a growing number of researchers applying the methods of physics to the issues of neuroscience. She says: "This is not a field where other people ask the questions and just solve them. You need to ask the questions yourself and open your mind to be more ambitious. We are the generation that has to make a difference. We have to make some kind of a breakthrough to demonstrate that theoretical neuroscience is having an impact and attracting new students, and become an established discipline rather than bordering on the boundaries of other departments."

Research projects at the laboratory include visual coding and grouping, visual attention, visual psychophysics, olfactory, animal locomotion and perceptual learning.

Dr Li's research interests include understanding computation in biological systems. Interested students and researchers are invited to visit the laboratory in the interests of collaborative research.

To find out more about Dr Li and the laboratory, use the links below.

Links:
Dr Li 
Research at UCL