Mark Andermann

Mark Andermann is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). Dr. Andermann received undergraduate training in math and physics at McGill University, Ph.D. training with Dr. Christopher Moore at MIT and Harvard, and postdoctoral training at the Helsinki University of Technology and with Dr. Clay Reid at Harvard Medical School, where he helped develop new tools for studying the neural basis of sensory perception using cellular imaging methods in behaving mice. Dr. Andermann’s lab seeks to understand how the needs of the body bias learning, attention, and imagery towards need-relevant objects, and how our attention shifts from these external stimuli towards internal body signals. To achieve these goals, the lab employs cellular and subcellular imaging methods to track the activity of specific brain cells in retina, thalamus, cortex, amygdala, hypothalamus, and brainstem across weeks as mice seek food, water, mates, or safety.

Dr. Andermann will be leading a discussion on Chronic Imaging of Intermingled Ensembles of Cortical Neurons Encoding Stimulus Identity or Predicted Outcome. The response of a cortical neuron to a motivationally salient visual stimulus can reflect a prediction of the associated outcome, a sensitivity to low-level stimulus features, or a mix of both. To distinguish between these alternatives, he and his team monitored responses to visual stimuli in the same lateral visual association cortex neurons across weeks, both prior to and after reassignment of the outcome associated with each stimulus. They observed correlated ensembles of neurons with visual responses that either tracked the same predicted outcome, the same stimulus orientation, or that emerged only following new learning. Visual responses of outcome-tracking neurons encoded “value,” as they demonstrated a response bias to salient, food-predicting cues and sensitivity to reward history and hunger state. Strikingly, these attributes were not evident in neurons that tracked stimulus orientation. Their findings suggest a division of labor between intermingled ensembles in visual association cortex that encode predicted value or stimulus identity.