Faculty bio | Niell Lab | (541) 346-8598

Cris Niell is an academic expert in neuroscience, interested in understanding how the brain interprets sensory information and drives our actions. His lab has developed methods to study the activity of neurons and brain regions during perception and cognition, with applications that range from childhood development and education to understanding autism and schizophrenia.

Recent Media: 
University of Oregon research offers a window into how octopuses see (Oregon Public Broadcasting, Aug. 2, 2023)
You may be hallucinating right now (Discover Magazine, Dec. 17, 2021)
Hallucinations: What explains these tricks of the mind? (Medical News Today, Aug. 17, 2020)
‘Noise’ in the brain encodes surprisingly important signals (Quantas Magazine, Nov. 7, 2019)
UO study offers a peek inside the brain during hallucinations (Around the O, March 28, 2019)
What happens to the brain during hallucinations? Scientists gave mice drugs to find out (Newsweek, March 26, 2019)
Psychedelics study reveals the strange neuron behavior behind hallucinations (Inverse, March 26, 2019)
Nanoparticles let mice see near infrared light (The Scientist, Feb. 28, 2019)
Of mice and mindfulness (The New York Times, May 18, 2017)
Can a mouse meditate? Why these researchers want to find out (Los Angeles Times, Feb. 20, 2017)
How mice use their brain to hunt (Science News Magazine, Jan. 12, 2017)
'I think of it almost like science fiction': Cameras reading minds at UO? (KVAL, March 30, 2016)
A way toward unlocking the teenage brain? (Around the O, March 23, 2016)