Dario Campagner

Dario Campagner is a research associate in the Branco Lab. His work focuses specifically on neural computations underlying decision making in the midbrain.  

Dr. Campagner conducted his PhD in the Petersen and Svoboda Laboratories at the University of Manchester and HHMI Janelia Research Campus. During his PhD he studied perceptual decision making and sensory-motor integration, using as a model the whisker system of mice. Dr. Campagner combined extra cellular recording techniques, behavioural assays and computational modeling to identify the elementary sensory signals encoded by primary somatosensory neurons during whisker-mediated object exploration, and studied how such signals interact with motor and locomotion related neural activity in the thalamus, zona incerta and other sub-cortical nuclei.

In his current project, Dr. Campagner studies perceptual decision making in the midbrain during innate defensive behaviour. His work will shed new light on how large networks of neurons compute threat from sensory evidence and use such information to select the correct behavioural outcome.