Patrick Kanold

Dr. Kanold is a neuroscientist and engineer studying the auditory cortex. He is interested in how the brain computes information about the world and how this representation is shaped by experience. He has discovered the key role of a special population of neurons in the developing brain, the subplate neurons. The Kanold lab was one of the first to use optical approaches to discover that “maps” of frequency preference in auditory cortex were disordered on a local scale challenging prior textbook dogma. The Kanold lab was also the first to optically dissect auditory cortical circuits across the lifespan and to show that experience even before ear opening and activation of layer 4 in rodents can shape subplate neuron circuits. His lab combines and further develops in vivo and in vitro optical and electrophysiological methods, high throughput behavioral approaches, and computational analyses to study the circuits and mechanisms underlying auditory perception and plasticity.