Research area 

Fiona Müllner is a group leader of The Thalamic Circuits group at DANDRITE, The Danish Research Institute of Translational Neuroscience at Aarhus University. The group investigates how visual information is processed by the brain, and how the brain actively modifies this information. They use a combination of cutting-edge methods in the mouse model, including two-photon imaging, advanced viral tracing, single-cell manipulation in vivo, and electrophysiology.

The thalamus is a deep brain region that integrates sensory inputs. The primary visual thalamus sends visual information received from the retina to the cortex. Yet, only 10% of its inputs are of retinal origin. Amongst the extraretinal inputs a variety of inhibitory sources are well placed to limit, dampen, delay or sharpen information flow. Fiona Müllner and the Thalamic Circuits group seek to understand how diverse signals from the retina get transformed into the visual features sent to cortex; how local interneurons, sparse but powerful inhibitory cells, shape and refine these visual streams; and how inputs from other brain regions – bringing in signals related to attention, arousal or behavioral context – change the way the dLGN shapes visual information.

Short bio

Fiona Müllner is DANDRITE Group Leader and Associate Professor at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University. With a background in Molecular Medicine and Mathematics, she works towards a mechanistic understanding of brain circuits using optical imaging, electrophysiological recordings, and mathematical modelling. She recently received an ERC starting grant for her ActiVisTha project exploring thalamic circuit diversity for active visual processing.