Welcome Dr. Eyal Gruntman
We would like to welcome Dr. Eyal Gruntman (Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences Department, University of Toronto Scarborough), to the CPIN Program. His research studies how the brain extracts visual information to guide behaviour.
The 2D input perceived by photoreceptors allows organisms to identify objects, separate them from the background, and determine their motion direction. These fundamental computations happen already in the retina, before the visual information is even sent to the brain. The focus of the Gruntman laboratory is to understand how visual circuits carry out these computations and how the brain assembles complex percepts from elementary features.
Prof. Gruntman’s lab uses the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a model organism, utilizing its rich repertoire of visually guided behaviours, powerful genetic tools, and complete electron microscopy connectome datasets. By combining electrophysiology with behavioural analysis and modern Drosophila tools to trace and manipulate neural circuits, the lab aims to uncover single-neuron computations within the context of brain-wide networks.
