At Utah, particular strength is found in the area of sensory neuroscience.
Sensory systems provide the interface between an organism and the environment.
Sensory receptors are composed of specialized cells or nerve endings which transduce internal and external stimuli into encoded neural messages which are interpreted by the central nervous system and then acted upon by the organism. At the University of Utah there are scientists interested in all aspects of sensation and strong research groups working in vision, chemoreception, sematosensation and audition. Recently, vision scientists and molecular biologists at the University identified a malfunctioning gene in the retina, which is responsible for some types of a retinal disease called macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. Chemosensory research in our program is directed towards understanding the basic function of olfactory, vomeronasal and arterial chemosensory systems.