I am a full-time Ph.D. student, specializing in Neuroscience at the University of Manchester. My research will focus on how visual scene affects behavioural states in laboratory rodents. After I got a master’s degree in Neurology at Capital Medical University in China, it occurred to me that I preferred doing lab research to clinical practices, and I became more and more interested in light-related neurobiology. How is ambient light measured in the eye and translated by the brain into changes in motor action and mood? By addressing this question in laboratory rodents instead of studying humans alone, which are both exciting and challenging without doubt, we could find more mechanistic and fundamental solutions.

The project will focus on how visual scene influences behavioural states in mammals, using electrophysiological and behavioural recordings of laboratory mice to map the brain’s response to light environment.