Katrin Franke’s research seeks to understand how the retinal network disassembles complex visual input. Previous research on this topic conducted by the field often focused on individual types of retinal cells, but Franke sought to record complete populations of neurons to capture the full functional diversity of parallel retinal channels. Through her approach, her findings have increased the understanding of how the mammalian retina processes visual information. For her outstanding work, she was awarded the Nemko Prize in Cellular or Molecular Neuroscience in 2017.
What led to your interest in visual processing?
Information processing in the visual system first attracted my interest as a master’s student at Tübingen University in a lecture series about the retina as a model system in neuroscience. I found it extremely fascinating that retinal cells perform computations to “decide” what’s important enough to be sent to the brain, determining what we see.
I decided to do a PhD in this field because I wanted to better understand how the retina decomposes the incoming visual stream into its relevant components that can then be interpreted by the brain.
In the last few years, I developed a strong interest in visual ecology, which aims to understand how different animal species use their visual systems to meet their ecological needs. I think investigating visual processing and comparing findings from different species is exciting and essential to discover universal and general principles of vision.
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