Tim Gentner
Primary Investigator
Tim Gentner is the PI of the lab. He has been running Gentner Lab since 2006.
in the laboratory
Research in the lab takes an integrative, systems-level approach to understanding the neural mechanisms that govern the sensory, perceptual, and cognitive processing of acoustic communication signals and real-world sounds. Our primary focus is on the elaborate vocal communication system of the European starling, a species of songbird.
of Decision Processes
Female mate-choice in songbirds provides an excellent context to study the specific neural mechanisms of decision processes involving natural stimuli. The lab has developed a novel procedure for assaying female song preference that permits extracellular electrophysiology in awake behaving songbirds. We are exploring a number of behavioral manipulations that target more specific acoustic features of male songs which drive female choice
The lab uses a variety of behavioral techniques to examine the statistical organization of spectral and temporal song at multiple acoustic levels. We want to know how such information constrains and biases acoustic pattern perception, attention, and memory mechanisms. These studies are fueled in part by our recent demonstration that songbirds can learn very complex temporal patterns described by grammars thought to be uniquely human.
of Auditory Perception and Cognition
of Auditory Objects
We are studying multiple populations of neurons in the songbird brain, in areas analogous to mammalian auditory cortex, whose responses are directly linked to behaviorally relevant variation among conspecific songs. Current studies in the lab investigate the neural mechanisms that give rise to these representations across the auditory forebrain. We are interested in fundamental questions of stimulus coding and receptive field organization, the transformation of information across brain regions, and the role of network level activity in shaping the brain's responses to natural communication signals. Some of this work is carried out in collaboration with physicists at UCSD and the Salk Institute.
Current lab members
Primary Investigator
Tim Gentner is the PI of the lab. He has been running Gentner Lab since 2006.
Grad Student
Michael is a PhD candidate from the Psychology department primarily interested in predictive coding in an auditory context, using trained behavior. Specifically, he is investigating how expectation induced by behavioral training in the European starling affects representation at different levels in the auditory hierarchy.
Grad Student
Srihita is a Master's student in Bio Engineering studying neural representations of birdsong.
Grad Student
Trevor is a Neurosciences PhD student interested in how information is relationally coded in songbird neuronal population activity.
Grad Student
Lauren is a PhD student in the Neurosciences Graduate Program and is interested in error processing and sensory-motor feedback.
Grad Student
Julia is a PhD student in Neurosciences leveraging in silico approaches to investigate neural dynamics in sensorimotor processes.
Grad Student
Katie is a PhD student in the Psychology department studying the auditory, perceptual, and neural processing of echolocation in bottlenose dolphins.
Grad Student
Colin is a PhD student investigating the neurobiology of magnetoreception in songbirds, one of the least understood sensory systems.
Grad Student
Jeffrey is a PhD student in the Psychology department studying songbird musicality and aesthetic preferences.
Grad Student
Lauren is an MD/PhD student in the Neurosciences Graduate Program studying the neural dynamics underlying vocal communication for brain-computer interface development.
Grad Student
Xavier is a Ph.D. student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department with an emphasis in Medical Devices and Systems, studying birdsong vocalizations, neural signals, and behavior.
Grad Student
Ben is a PhD student in Linguistics with a specialization in Computational Social Science and is interested in phonetics and the neural bases of speech perception in humans.
Former lab members
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Research Scientist
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See a full list of publications on Google Scholar