Our Research Questions
How does the brain process sensory information, form memories, and make decisions to guide actions?
How does context, such as our internal state of motivation, alter the neural circuits that control our decisions?
How does the disease state disrupt the neural circuits that control decision-making?
Our Approach
We investigate these questions in mice using a tightly controlled virtual reality paradigm in which we can design different decision-making tasks to isolate the sensory information, the internal strategies, and the motor readouts that shape and report the decision-making process.
We focus our work on a highly conserved brain circuit that links the cortex, the basal ganglia, and the thalamus. These brain areas are anatomically connected via multiple parallel loops, with each loop thought to control distinct functions (from cognition to motor control).
A greater understanding of the operating principles of each node in this loop, and how they interact, thus holds promise to reveal general principles on the purpose of this repeated circuit architecture and its role in decision-making and beyond.
In addition, dysfunction in this circuit is linked to multiple human disorders, such as Parkinson’s and schizophrenia, and a wide range of behavioral symptoms across them. A greater understanding of how activity within this circuit maps onto behavior thus holds promise to reveal new targets for therapeutic interventions, particularly for cognitive impairments where treatment options remain limited.
Our Tools
Molecular & Genetic
Computation
We use viruses, transgenics, & molecular biology approaches to probe different neural cell types.
We use advanced statistical & machine learning approaches to analyze behavior & neural activity.
Circuit Perturbations
Neural Recordings
We use pharmacological & optogenetic approaches to directly manipulate neural activity.
We use Neuropixels probes to measure activity in 100s of neurons across multiple brain areas.