Welcome to the Noel Lab!

We are a Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Lab at the University of Minnesota. We are broadly interested in perception and decision-making: how do we infer the world around us, and ourselves within it? Please visit the Research page for more information.

Our lab is multi-disciplinary. We believe that understanding brain function entails bridging across levels of description – from genetics to cellular and molecular mechanisms, to single neuron firing activity, and population dynamics. Ultimately, we want to explain behavior. We study humans, in health and disease. We also work with animal models. Our translational work is centered on psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions, with a focus on the autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and psychosis. In order to bridge from animals to humans, and from neural activity to behavior, we employ tools from computational neuroscience and psychiatry (e.g., biologically-plausible neural networks and normative Bayesian accounts).

To better understand sensory processing in neurotypical individuals, as well as those with different neurodevelopmental or psychiatric conditions, we are actively recruiting human participants. If you are interested in participating, please visit the Participate in Research page for more information!

We are scientists because we want to positively impact the world around us. We believe that in the long-term, our research will create such an impact. In the shorter-term, the impact we make is judged by the quality of our daily interactions. We believe in being kind, supportive, inclusive, and collaborative. We aim to create a safe space where individuals and groups can be at their best, be creative, and dare to fail. Science is not a zero-sum game, and it’s much more fun as a team sport. Please visit the Lab Culture page for more information.