Sonja Hofer

[2] After holding an Assistant Professorship at the Biozentrum University of Basel in Switzerland for five years, she now is a group leader and Professor at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour since 2018.

[4] Hofer began her undergraduate career in Munich at the Technical University studying biology with a specialization in zoology.

Hofer's lab currently studies circuit mechanisms of sensory processing and sensory-guided decision-making.

[12][13] More recently, the Hofer lab investigated how sensory and non-sensory information is integrated by subcortical structures to guide behaviour.

They found that the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus (vLGN), an inhibitory prethalamic area, is a critical hub for the control of visually-evoked fear responses depending on an animal's prior knowledge and internal state.