Damon Clark, PhD
Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and of Physics and of NeuroscienceDownloadHi-Res Photo
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Appointments
Neuroscience
Secondary
About
Titles
Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and of Physics and of Neuroscience
Appointments
Neuroscience
Associate Professor on TermSecondary
Other Departments & Organizations
- Biochemistry, Quantitative Biology, Biophysics and Structural Biology (BQBS)
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program
- Molecular Cell Biology, Genetics and Development
- Neuroscience
- Neuroscience Track
- Swartz Program in Theoretical Neurobiology
- Wu Tsai Institute
- Yale Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS)
- Yale Ventures
Education & Training
- Postdoctoral Fellow
- Stanford University (2012)
- PhD
- Harvard University, Physics (2007)
- AB
- Princeton University, Physics (2001)
Research
Overview
Medical Research Interests
Behavior; Computational Biology; Drosophila; Motion Perception; Neurobiology; Optogenetics; Sensation; Visual Perception
ORCID
0000-0001-8487-700X- View Lab Website
Clark Lab
Research at a Glance
Yale Co-Authors
Frequent collaborators of Damon Clark's published research.
Publications Timeline
A big-picture view of Damon Clark's research output by year.
Research Interests
Research topics Damon Clark is interested in exploring.
Ryosuke Tanaka, MS
Jonathan Demb, PhD
Thierry Emonet
24Publications
808Citations
Motion Perception
Drosophila
Publications
2024
Optimization in Visual Motion Estimation
Clark D, Fitzgerald J. Optimization in Visual Motion Estimation. Annual Review Of Vision Science 2024, 10: 23-46. PMID: 38663426, DOI: 10.1146/annurev-vision-101623-025432.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitations
2023
Neural mechanisms to incorporate visual counterevidence in self-movement estimation
Tanaka R, Zhou B, Agrochao M, Badwan B, Au B, Matos N, Clark D. Neural mechanisms to incorporate visual counterevidence in self-movement estimation. Current Biology 2023, 33: 4960-4979.e7. PMID: 37918398, PMCID: PMC10848174, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.10.011.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricLong-timescale anti-directional rotation in Drosophila optomotor behavior
Mano O, Choi M, Tanaka R, Creamer M, Matos N, Shomar J, Badwan B, Clandinin T, Clark D. Long-timescale anti-directional rotation in Drosophila optomotor behavior. ELife 2023, 12: e86076. PMID: 37751469, PMCID: PMC10522332, DOI: 10.7554/elife.86076.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsRetinal slipLobula plateLobula plate tangential cellsVisual stimuliDirection-selective cellsExtensive dissectionTangential cellsCertain stimulus conditionsLocomotor movementsCH cellsStabilization responseMotion visionStimulus conditionsOptomotor responseOptomotor behaviorCellsAnimalsResponseOptomotorStimuliReflexDissectionDirect comparison reveals algorithmic similarities in fly and mouse visual motion detection
Chen J, Gish C, Fransen J, Salazar-Gatzimas E, Clark D, Borghuis B. Direct comparison reveals algorithmic similarities in fly and mouse visual motion detection. IScience 2023, 26: 107928. PMID: 37810236, PMCID: PMC10550730, DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107928.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricConceptsMolecular mechanismsStarburst amacrine cellsSpatiotemporal receptive-field structureReceptive field structureAmacrine cellsT4 neuronsSpeciesNeuronal morphologyNeuron typesAnalogous neuronsNeural circuitsVisual motion detectionCellsVisual motionMotion stimuliVertebratesInvertebratesMiceMotion processingNeuronsSimilarityApparent motion stimuliFlies
2022
Odour motion sensing enhances navigation of complex plumes
Kadakia N, Demir M, Michaelis B, DeAngelis B, Reidenbach M, Clark D, Emonet T. Odour motion sensing enhances navigation of complex plumes. Nature 2022, 611: 754-761. PMID: 36352224, PMCID: PMC10039482, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05423-4.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsRobot navigationVirtual agentsEffective navigationMultiple featuresMultiple streamsNavigationUncertain environmentMotion sensingVirtual reality paradigmTemporal correlationDirectional informationNavigational decisionsInformationComplex plumesSensingAlgorithmSensory inputInputParadigmSearchEnvironmentStreamsGeneralityExcitatory and inhibitory neural dynamics jointly tune motion detection
Gonzalez-Suarez AD, Zavatone-Veth JA, Chen J, Matulis CA, Badwan BA, Clark DA. Excitatory and inhibitory neural dynamics jointly tune motion detection. Current Biology 2022, 32: 3659-3675.e8. PMID: 35868321, PMCID: PMC9474608, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.075.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricNeural mechanisms to exploit positional geometry for collision avoidance
Tanaka R, Clark DA. Neural mechanisms to exploit positional geometry for collision avoidance. Current Biology 2022, 32: 2357-2374.e6. PMID: 35508172, PMCID: PMC9177691, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.023.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsSpatial vision taskDistinct visual featuresNeural mechanismsVisual worldVisual motionSmall neural circuitsCollision avoidance behaviorSpatial visionMotion signalsVisual featuresNeural circuitsDrosophila exhibitConnectomic analysisGeometrical cuesSpatial informationVision tasksActivity drivesTuning mirrorMotion detectorsPsychophysicsCuesObjectsTaskBehaviorAvoidanceParallel locomotor control strategies in mice and flies
Gonçalves AI, Zavatone-Veth JA, Carey MR, Clark DA. Parallel locomotor control strategies in mice and flies. Current Opinion In Neurobiology 2022, 73: 102516. PMID: 35158168, DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2022.01.001.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsShallow neural networks trained to detect collisions recover features of visual loom-selective neurons.
Zhou B, Li Z, Kim S, Lafferty J, Clark DA. Shallow neural networks trained to detect collisions recover features of visual loom-selective neurons. ELife 2022, 11 PMID: 35023828, PMCID: PMC8849349, DOI: 10.7554/elife.72067.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetric
2021
Predicting individual neuron responses with anatomically constrained task optimization
Mano O, Creamer MS, Badwan BA, Clark DA. Predicting individual neuron responses with anatomically constrained task optimization. Current Biology 2021, 31: 4062-4075.e4. PMID: 34324832, PMCID: PMC8741219, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.06.090.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsArtificial networksInference problemStatistical representationTask optimizationSmall neural networksNeural networkNoise constraintsMotion detection modelArtificial neural networkBiological circuitsMotion detectorsModelNetworkPropertiesOptimizationConstraintsIndividual neuron responsesDetectorNoiseProblemNeuron propertiesCircuit
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- To test quantitative models of neural function, we often measure the behavior of flies in virtual reality environments.