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 potential applications include treating impaired vision and brain injury.

Recent Media: 
Octopuses are colorblind. Here’s how they see the world (Scientific American, Dec. 22, 2023)
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)
Of mice and mindfulness (The New York Times, May 18, 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)