Research

Multiregional communcation

My research focuses on understanding how information flows through the brain. No behaviour or cogntitive process is guided by a single brain area acting in isolation. Networks of brain areas interact to form the basis of sensory perception, guide movements, and cognition. I use multi-electrode, multi-area recordings to study how information flows both within and across brain areas.

Laminar cortical organization

To keep track of what information is coming from where and when, each brain area organizes its inputs. By using laminar multi-electrodes that simulatanously record across layers of cortex, I study how the architechture of cortex is used to integrate infomation across brain areas. I also employ tools like optogenetics to manipulate specfic inputs to an area to causally test how information from one area influence another.

Behavioral mechanisms

Ultimately, the goal is to understand how communiation acorss brain ares gives rise to behavior. Both overt behaviors, such as movements, and covert behaviors, such as attention and decision-making, depend on systems of brain areas that modulate their interactions depending on behavioral demands. Therefore, we can experiments where behavioral outputs can be used to gauge neural communication.

Positions

The lab currently has projects suitable for all levels of student, including BMS/PHY3990, Honours, Masters and PhD. If the research sounds exciting to you, get in touch!

Publications

2020

Hagan, M.A., Pesaran, B. Functional inhibition across a visuomotor communication channel coordinates looking and reaching. bioRxiv. 2020.
Shewcraft R.A., Dean H.L., Fabiszak M.M., Hagan M.A., Wong Y.T., Pesaran B. Excitatory/inhibitory responses shape coherent neuronal dynamics driven by optogenetic stimulation in the primate brain. Journal of Neuroscience. 2020.
Yoo P.E., Oxley TJ, Hagan M.A., John S, Ronayne S.M., Rind G.S., Brinded A.M., Opie N.L., Moffat B.A., Wong Y.T. Distinct neural correlates underlie inhibitory mechanisms of motor inhibition and motor imagery restraint. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. 2020.

2019

Hagan, M.A., Chaplin, T.A., Huxlin, K.R., Rosa, M.G.P. and Lui, L.L. Altered sensitivity to motion of area MT neurons following long-term V1 lesions. Cerebral Cortex . 2019.
Hadjidimitrakis K., Bakola S., Wong Y. T., Hagan M.A. Mixed spatial and movement representations in the primate posterior parietal cortex. Frontiers in Neural Circuits. 2019.

2018

Chaplin, T.A., Hagan, M.A., Allit, B.J., and Lui, L.L. Neuronal correlations in MT and MST impair population decoding of opposite directions of random dot motion. eNeuro. 2018.
Chaplin, T.A., Allit, B.J., Hagan, M.A., Price, N.S., Rosa, M.G.P., Rajan, R., and Lui, L.L. Auditory motion does not modulate spiking activity in the middle temporal and medial superior temporal visual areas. European Journal of Neuroscience. 2018.
Chaplin, T.A., Allit, B.J., Hagan, M.A., Price, N.S., Rajan, R., Rosa, M.G.P. and Lui, L.L. Sensitivity of neurons in the middle temporal area of marmoset monkeys to random dot motion. Journal of Neurophysiology. 2018.
Yoo P.E., Hagan M.A., John S.E., Opie N.L., Ordidge R.J., O’Brien T.J., Oxley T.J., Moffat B.A., Wong Y.T. Spatially dynamic recurrent information flow across longrange dorsal motor network encodes selective motor goals. Human Brain Mapping. 2018.
Yoo P.E., Oxley T.J., John S.E., Opie N.L., Ordidge R.J., O’Brien T.J., Hagan M.A., Wong Y.T., Moffat B.A. Feasibility of identifying the ideal locations for motor intention decoding using unimodal and multimodal classification at 7T-fMRI. Scientific Reports. 2018.

2017

Hagan, M.A., Rosa, M.G.P. and Lui, L.L. Neural plasticity following lesions of the primate occipital lobe: the marmoset as an animal model for studies of blindsight. Developmental Neurobiology. 2017.

2013

Li, D.-P., Hagan, M.A., and Kiorpes, L. Linking structure and function: Development of lateral spatial interactions in macaque monkeys. Visual Neuroscience. 2013.

2012

Hagan, M.A., Dean, H.L., and Pesaran, B. Spike-field representations in parietal area LIP during coordinated reach and saccade movements. Journal of Neurophysiology. 2012.
Dean, H.L., Hagan, M.A., and Pesaran, B. Only coherent spiking in posterior parietal cortex coordinates looking and reaching. Neuron. 2012.

2011

Wong, Y.T., Hagan, M.A., Markowitz, D., and Pesaran, B. The tracking of reaches in three dimensions. Proc. 33th IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference. Sept 2011.

last updated July 2020