Rate My Professor Jose-Manuel Alonso

Dr. Jose-Manuel Alonso is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biological and Vision Sciences at the State University of New York College of Optometry. He is a visual neuroscientist whose research investigates how neural circuits transform light signals entering the eye into meaningful visual perception. His work focuses on the functional organization of the retina, thalamus, and primary visual cortex, with particular emphasis on how ON and OFF pathways encode increments and decrements of light and contribute to the formation of visual representations in the brain. Using a combination of electrophysiology, computational analysis, and systems neuroscience approaches, his laboratory has identified fundamental mechanisms that shape spatial resolution, contrast sensitivity, and the development of cortical maps. These studies have advanced understanding of thalamocortical processing and revealed key principles governing how visual information is transmitted, integrated, and interpreted across multiple stages of the visual system. Dr. Alonso's research has also provided important insights into the neural mechanisms that regulate ocular growth and refractive development, including how imbalances between ON and OFF visual pathways may contribute to the development of myopia. He mentors graduate students and trainees in vision science and neuroscience at SUNY Optometry.