What we do.
Temporally patterned activity in the cortex underlies behavior.
We use in vivo recording techniques to understand how specific neurons and groups of neurons transmit information between distributed regions of the brain, coupled with genetic perturbations that mimic disease states. We use computational approaches to identify the function of behaviorally-driven ensembles of neurons during behavior. The goal of these studies is to identify signatures of disease at the population and ensemble level that may be targeted by therapeutics to ultimately ameliorate cognitive deficits in patients.
Neuronal activity is modulated at multiple levels during behavior. Here we use data derived from microendoscopic calcium recordings to show that individual neurons may fire specifically during social interaction or home cage exploration (A shows calcium traces from selected neurons, and B shows activity of neurons aligned to the onset of the first social interaction with a novel juvenile mouse) .
Activity within cortical microcircuits may be altered by abnormal intrinsic properties or recurrent network properties, or by changes in distributed inputs. We utilize optical and transcriptomic techniques to understand how heterogeneous cell populations and projections contribute to representations of socioemotional behaviors. We are particularly interested in understanding how the prefrontal cortex handles computations involved in processing multiple types of information simultaneously, and how these computations are disrupted in disease.