Central Systems Laboratory
G. Christopher Stecker
Postdoctoral Fellow
Email: cstecker@umich.edu
Phone: (734) 764-5167
Fax: (734) 764-0014
Accomplishments
- Ph.D. in psychology (Cognitive, Auditory Psychophysics), University of California, Berkeley (Advisor: Ervin Hafter), 2000. Dissertation title: "Observer weighting in sound localization."
- M.A. in Psychology (Cognitive, Auditory Psychophysics), University of California, Berkeley (Advisor: Ervin Hafter), 1998. Thesis title: "Temporal asymmetry and loudness."
- B.A. in Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego (Advisor: Martin Sereno), 1994. Thesis title: "Cellular automata networks: an approach to modelling cognitive and neural systems."
Hobbies
- Electronics and analog synthesis
- Electronic music (collage, abstract, techno)
- WCBN
- Gran Turismo
Research Project
My primary research interests lie in quantitative approaches to characterizing the responses of multiple simultaneously-recorded sensory neurons and relating those responses to relevant parameters of stimuli and behaviors. We use linear and non-linear regression or pattern-recognition techniques---such as artificial neural networks (ANNs)---to estimate the stimulus-related information carried by individual spikes, spike trains, and responses of neural ensembles. We use these techniques primarily for studying the way auditory space is represented by auditory cortical neurons, which do not code for space via a simple spatiotopic arrangement of rate-based neural receptive fields, as can be found for other stimulus parameters such as frequency. Much of the work on quantifying stimulus-related information and tying it to particular features of the neural responses was developed by Shigeto Furukawa, who was a previous post-doc in the lab. My particular focus has been to develop a data-driven approach, based on studying the structure of regression weights obtained from these analyses, akin to observer-weighting analysis in psychophysics. In addition, I am developing software tools that take advantage of the fixed-array multi-channel recording capabilities of the Michigan probe to provide better unit isolation, reduced noise, and improved spatial localization of recorded cells than can be obtained by treating the channels independently.
