Christiaan Levelt new director of Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

Levelt's group investigates the brain processes involved in learning and information processing. His research focuses on the regions of the brain responsible for sight, i.e. the visual system. He is interested in how brain circuits adapt in response to the information they receive, and how these processes differ between the developing and adult brain. A question directly related to this is how these learning processes contribute to the conscious perception of important information. To answer that question, Levelt's group investigates how the brain combines what we see directly with what we expect based on previous experience. 

Levelt has a clear, wide-ranging vision for the future of the Institute. As director, he wants the Institute to build a bridge between brain circuit research and psychiatry and neurology, both within the institute and beyond. He expects that the institute's unique expertise in brain circuit research and its special facilities will contribute significantly, both nationally and internationally, to improving our understanding of the brain and brain disorders, as well as to developing innovative treatment methods.