Announcements
We are recruiting! We are specifically looking for engineering, computer science, data science, math, and neuroscience majors. If interested, please fill out this application form.
Our Research
We are interested in how the brain generates flexible, adaptive behavior within the complex and structured environments we inhabit. This flexibility relies on cognitive models of the world that our brains learn and maintain. These models enable us to plan action sequences to achieve goals, transfer prior learning to novel situations, and infer underlying patterns and rules in our environment and society.
Our research focuses on understanding how GABAergic outputs from the basal ganglia interact with distributed brain regions to support flexible, adaptive behaviors. We also explore how dysfunctions in these processes may contribute to impairments in conditions such as compulsive disorders, autism, and Parkinson’s disease.
To pursue these goals, we take a multidisciplinary approach, utilizing a range of experimental and computational technologies across molecular, circuit, and behavioral levels. Specifically, we employ single-cell techniques, sophisticated viral tracing, brain- wide circuitry mapping and reconstruction, objective and unsupervised behavioral clustering, cell-type and action-specific Cal-light tagging, and closed-loop optogenetic manipulation.
We measure neural ensemble activity during behavior using calcium imaging and Neuropixels recordings. Additionally, we employ optogenetic techniques to manipulate neural activity and utilize advanced computational methods to model population dynamics.