Giuliano Iurilli

How does the brain process environmental and internal information to orchestrate the most adaptive response to ongoing and incoming challenges? I began to approach this question during my graduate studies at IIT in the laboratory of Paolo Medini, where I aimed to understand better how the microcircuits of the visual cortex respond to visual deprivation and non-visual stimuli from the external environment in mice. Then, as a postdoc, I moved to the laboratory of Bob Datta at Harvard Medical School, where I gradually shifted my focus on the innate behavioral responses to sensory stimuli, specifically to olfactory stimuli, the most primordial sensory stimuli used by animals. Finally, back at IIT as a Principal Investigator, I am working with a fantastic group of talented young scientists to discover the central circuit mechanisms that coordinate an animal's behavioral and visceral activity in anticipation of what will be coming.