Our brains are made up of an intricate network of neurons. Understanding the complex neuronal circuits—the connections of these neurons—is important in understanding how our brains process visual information.
Farran Briggs, a new associate professor of neuroscience and of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, studies neuronal circuits in the brain's vision system and how attention affects the brain's ability to process visual information.
Previously a professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Briggs became interested in neuroscience in high school. "I took a class and just became really fascinated by the brain and how it works," she says. Today, her research on the fundamental levels of vision may provide new insight on impairments associated with attention deficit disorders.