m-nelson@uiuc.edu
3351 Beckman Institute
Office: (217) 244-1371
Lab: (217) 244-4478
Mail to:
Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology
524 Burrill Hall
407 S. Goodwin Ave
Urbana, IL 61801
Mark E Nelson
Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Biophysics, Bioengineering, and Neuroscience
Education
B.S. 1976 Wichita State University
PhD. 1983 University of California, Berkley
Postdoc. 1983-91 California Institute of Technology
Teaching Interests
Computational Neuroscience; Neuroethology; Adaptive Behaviour
The goal of our research is to understand the neural mechanisms and computational principles that allow animals to function effectively in complex, dynamically changing environments. Our focus is on understanding general principles of "smart sensing" in animals. We're interested in how the nervous system extracts and enhances behaviorally relevant information and suppresses irrelevant background noise. We investigate these issues by studying how weakly electric fish detect, localize, and discriminate prey in the dark using their electric sense. Our research involves a combination of behavioral, neurophysiological, computer modeling, and biorobotic approaches.
Representative Publications
Nelson ME, MacIver MA (2006) Sensory acquisition in active sensing systems. J. Comp. Physiol. A 192: 573-586. [Abstract]
Chen L, House JH, Krahe R, Nelson ME (2005) Modeling signal and background components of electrosensory scenes. J. Comp. Physiol. A 191: 331-345. [Abstract]
Nelson ME (2005) Electrophysiological Models In: Databasing the Brain: From Data to Knowledge. (S. Koslow and S. Subramaniam, eds.) Wiley, New York, pp. 285-301.
Nelson ME (2005) Target Detection, Image Analysis and Modeling In: Electroreception (Springer Handbook of Auditory Research) (T.H. Bullock, C.D. Hopkins, A.N Popper, R.R. Fay, eds.) Springer, New York, pp. 290-317.
Brandman, R. and Nelson, M.E. (2002) "A simple model of long-term spike train regularization," Neural Computation 14: 1575-1597. [Abstract]
Coombs S, New, J.G., and Nelson ME (2002) Information-processing demands in electrosensory and mechanosensory lateral line systems. J. Physiol. (Paris) 96, 341-354.