Carl Schoonover

Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics
carl.schoonover {at} alleninstitute {dot} org

I am a Senior Scientist at The Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics where I study the biological basis of learning. Animals continually explore their surroundings throughout their lives in order to discover how their world is organized. Much of this learning does not require labels or reinforcers. This remarkable cognitive faculty is deployed by relatively simple species even as it eludes our most advanced algorithms for artificial intelligence.

Here and here is some work on behavioral methods for accessing this somewhat elusive form of learning. And here is some recent work on representational drift in primary olfactory cortex (general-audience description here).

My postdoctoral work in the Axel Laboratory at Columbia University focused on the processing and neural plasticity of the primary olfactory cortex of the mouse. My doctoral work, under the supervision of Randy Bruno at Columbia University, focused on the microanatomy and electrophysiology of the rodent somatosensory cortex. Before that I took a master's degree in cognitive science at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where I built a sensory substitution device under the supervision of J. Kevin O'Regan. In college I studied logic and analytic philosophy at Harvard College, and also investigated the molecular mechanisms of synapse development under the supervision of Joshua Sanes.

I occasionally teach, most recently a graduate-level course, Topics in Systems Neuroscience.

In parallel to my scientific work, I am interested in the dialog between scientists and general audiences. In 2008 I cofounded NeuWrite, a working group for scientists and writers. In 2010 I published a visual survey of my discipline, Portraits of the Mind: Visualizing the Brain from Antiquity to the 21st Century.

Writing: Katie Cacouris
Speaking: Charles Yao

.

"Early Scheme for a circular Feedback Circle"
From Theoretische Biologie by Jakob von Uexküll (1920)