ALESSANDRA ANGELUCCI
Alessandra Angelucci
email: alessandra.angelucci@hsc.utah.edu		 Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology & Visual Science
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Bioengineering

Brain and Behavior

M.D. 1990, University of Rome "La Sapienza"; Ph.D. 1996, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA; Post-doctoral Research Fellow 1997-2000, Institute of Ophthalmology, UCL, London (UK); Royal Society Research Fellow 2000-2001, Institute of Ophthalmology, UCL, London (UK).

RESEARCH:

Structure and function of the visual cerebral cortex

Dr. Angelucci research focuses on identifying neuronal circuits that underlie specific functional properties of neurons in the visual cerebral cortex and ultimately visual perception. The techniques employed typically consist in electrophysiologically recording properties of neurons at specific cortical loci and injecting neuroanatomical tracers at the same loci to relate neuronal response properties to the underlying anatomical structure. More recently, to determine the functional organization of specific cortical circuits, we have been combining optical imaging of neuronal population responses with injections of anatomical tracers.

At the early stage of processing, the mammalian visual system deconstructs images into a series of elementary features and attributes, such as color, orientation of line segments, direction of motion, ocularity and spatial location. These properties are segregated in early visual cerebral cortical areas (and in some instances in subcortical nuclei), systematically and orderly mapped, and processed in parallel. Normal vision requires this deconstructed information to be integrated across space and attributes to generate unitary percepts. Research in the lab is currently directed towards understanding how and where in the visual cortex visual signals arising from distant locations in the visual world are integrated into a coherent percept. Specifically, we are studying neural circuits that might underlie long-range interactions across visual space and their role in visual perception. A second major line of research is aimed at identifying neuronal circuits that mediate cross-talk between segregated functional streams specialized in processing visual attributes such as color, form and motion.

Selected Publications

Schwabe, L., Obermayer, K., Angelucci, A.,* and Bressloff, P.,C.* (2006) The role of feedback in shaping the extra-classical receptive field of cortical neurons: a recurrent network model. J. Neurosci., 26:9117-9129.

Angelucci, A., and Sainsbury, K. (2006) Contribution of feedforward thalamic afferents and corticogeniculate feedback to the spatial summation area of macaque V1 and LGN. J. Comp. Neurol., 498:330-351.

Angelucci, A., and Bressloff, P. C. (2006) Contribution of feedforward, lateral and feedback connections to the classical receptive field and extra-classical receptive field surround of primate V1 neurons. Prog. Brain Res., 154:93-121.

Ichida, J. M., Schwabe, L., Bressloff, P. C., and Angelucci, A. (2006) Feedback-mediated facilitation from the "far"receptive field surround of macaque V1 neurons. Computational and Systems Neuroscience Abstr., 136.

Tang, Z-X., Ichida, J. M., Jeffs, J., Levitt, J. B., and Angelucci, A. (2005) Spatial extent of the receptive field center and surround of macaque V2 neurons. Soc. Neurosci. Abstr. Online, 389.7.

Jeffs, J., Ichida, J. M., and Angelucci, A. (2005) Additional anatomical evidence for an upper and lower visual field representation bordering dorsal V2 in the marmoset. Soc. Neurosci. Abstr. Online, 854.11.

Federer, F., Jeffs, J., Ichida, J. M., and Angelucci, A. (2005) Projections from primary visual cortex to the cytochrome oxidase stripes of marmoset area V2. Soc. Neurosci. Abstr. Online, 854.12.

Lund, J. S., Angelucci, A., and Bressloff P. (2003) Anatomical substrates for functional columns in primary visual cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 12:15-24.

Angelucci, A., Schiessl, I., Nowak, L., and McLoughlin, N. (2003)ÊFunctional specificity of feedforward and feedback connections between V1 & V2. Soc. Neurosci. Abstr. Online, 911.2.

Angelucci, A., and Bullier, J. (2003) Reaching beyond the classical receptive field of V1 neurons: horizontal or feedback axons? J. Physiol. (Paris), 97:141-154.

Angelucci, A., Levitt, J. B., and Lund, J. S. (2002) Anatomical origins of the classical receptive field and modulatory surround field of single neurons in visual cortical area V1 Prog. Brain Res., 136:373-388.

Angelucci, A., Levitt, J. B., Walton, E., Hupé, J.-M., Bullier, J., and Lund, J. S. (2002) Circuits for local and global signal integration in primary visual cortex. J. Neurosci. 22:8633-8646.

Sharma, J., Angelucci, A., and Sur, M. (2000) Induction of visual modules in auditory cortex. Nature (article) 404:841-847.

Angelucci, A., Clascá, F., and Sur, M. (1996) Anterograde axonal tracing with the subunit B of cholera toxin: a highly sensitive immunohistochemical protocol for revealing fine axonal morphology in adult and neonatal brains. J. Neurosci. Methods 65:101-112.

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