Sami El-Boustani

Sami El-Boustani

Function: Professeur assistant

Group name: Experimental and Computational Neurosciences Laboratory

Group type: Main

Affiliations: Faculty of Medicine, Department of Basic Neurosciences

Domains: Development and Plasticity, Perception, Attention and Cognition, Sensory and Motor Systems

Keywords: learning, multisensory integration, perceptual inference, synaptic plasticity

Research activities

From a single synapse to simple behaviors, the nervous system exhibits rich and complex dynamics that convey every perception we experience and every action we make. In particular, extracting regularities in the environment to build predictions of forthcoming sensory percepts is an essential cognitive process, which animals use to adjust their behavior and achieve specific goals. Perceptual predictions originate from an internal representation of the world in the brain that is continuously shaped by new experiences and can guide behavior. Recent developments of genetically-encoded sensors and effectors along with novel behavioral paradigms have positioned mice as an ideal model to address these questions. In the laboratory, we study the emergence and influence of experience-dependent internal representations on sensory processing and perceptual decision-making in mice performing multisensory tasks. Our lab uses a combination of in vivo electrophysiology, wide-field imaging, two-photon microscopy, mouse behavior and molecular biology to address these questions.

Key publications

See the complete list of the publications

Hide the members of the Lab

Prof. Sami El-Boustani

Group leader

CMU - C08.1534.A
+41 22 37 95 468
sami.el-boustani@unige.ch

Lucile Favero Montero

Master student

CMU - C08.2141.B
+41 22 37 95 815
lucile.faveropistoresi@unige.ch

Grihmalkin Foucher

Master student

CMU - C08.2141.B
+41 22 37 95 815
grihmalkin.foucher@etu.unige.ch

Maëlle Guyoton

Graduate student

CMU - C08.2141.B
+41 22 37 95 815
maelle.guyoton@unige.ch

Aude Imbruglia

CFC technician

CMU - C08.2141.B
+41 22 37 95 815
aude.imbruglia@unige.ch

Dimokratis Karamanlis

Postdoc

CMU - C08.2141.B
+41 22 37 95 815
dimokratis.karamanlis@unige.ch

Anas Masood

Graduate student

CMU - C08.2141.B
+41 22 37 95 815
anas.masood@unige.ch

Giulio Matteucci

Postdoc

CMU - C08.2141.B
+41 22 37 95 815
giulio.matteucci@unige.ch

Andrea Valderrama

Master student

CMU - C08.2141.B
+41 22 37 95 815
andrea.valderrama@etu.unige.ch

Contact

Faculté de médecine
Université de Genève
Email: Sami.El-boustani@unige.ch