H. Sebastian Seung Position Evnin Professor in Neuroscience Role Professor of Computer Science and Neuroscience Title Ph.D., Harvard University, 1990 Office Phone 609-258-7713 Email [email protected] Assistant Kim Linton Office 153 PNI Bio/Description Research Focus A neuronal wiring diagram for a fly brain is now complete, and a cubic millimeter reconstruction of mouse visual cortex is being proofread. Neuroscience has finally entered the connectomic era. Now that we have wiring diagrams with unprecedented precision and completeness, the challenge is to interpret them for insights into brain function and development. Sebastian Seung is demonstrating that this can be surprisingly easy, by predicting what a fly can see based on the wiring diagram of its visual system. In addition, the Seung lab is applying and refining existing connectomic technologies to reconstruct more neuronal wiring diagrams. These ongoing collaborations include more fly connectomes (Mala Murthy), a patch of mouse retina (Thomas Euler), and neural circuits for memory (David Tank), decision making (Adrian Wanner and Jeff Lichtman), and reinforcement learning (Ilana Witten). The Seung lab continues to advance the state of the art in connectomic technologies, through participation in a “transformative project” of the NIH BRAIN Initiative that aims to scale up connectomics to a whole mouse brain. The Seung lab is also “scaling down” connectomics to reveal even tinier biological structures by boosting image resolution with serial section EM tomography. The Princeton Neuroscience Institute is the only site in the world that includes both of the leading EM image acquisition technologies for connectomics, beam-deflection transmission electron microscopy and multi-beam scanning electron microscopy. Related Links Seung Lab Wikipedia Profile "I Am My Connectome" 2010 Ted Talk Wall Street Journal book review Publications Related News Mapping an entire (fly) brain: A step toward understanding diseases of the human brain Department/Program Computer Science Research Area NeuroAI Systems & Circuits Molecular & Cellular Computation & Theory