Our laboratory is generally interested in how sensory stimuli gain meaning and guide our actions. This process is fundamental for survival-- deficits lead to many of the symptoms common in neuropsychiatric diseases including
anxiety disorders, chronic pain syndromes, and affective disorders. We currently have three main projects that investigate this central question. In the first, we seek to understand how neurons in the striatum (Str), the input
nucleus of the basal ganglia, encode sensorimotor information before, during and after mice learn a sensorimotor task. In the second project, we seek to understand how dopamine (DA) affects the cellular, synaptic and ensemble
activity of striatal neurons. Both of these projects are supported by research project grants (R01s) from the NIH, among other funding sources. In a third, more translational rapidly developing project, we aim to understand
how psychedelic medicines, which are gaining recognition as effective treatments in neuropsychiatry, modulate sensorimotor pathways. This work is motivated by my training and practice as a psychiatrist and involvement in
the NYU Center for Psychedelic Medicine. It is highly collaborative, and is being carried out on multiple levels of interrogation including assaying the pharmacological profile of these drugs, quantifying their effects on
maladaptive behaviors and pinpointing the neural circuit mechanisms underlying these effects.
Overall Approach:
Our lab employs three main methodologies to investigate the circuits underlying sensorimotor learning that allow us to interrogate these pathways at different levels of organization. In the first, we utilize deep-brain two-photon (2P) calcium imaging to monitor the activity of striatal neurons throughout learning. This approach allows us to answer questions about the ensemble dynamics of neurons or how groups of neurons encode for variables relevant for behavior. In the second, we leverage our labβs distinctive strength in performing subthreshold, membrane potential (Vm) measurements in behaving rodents. This enables us to uniquely ask mechanistic, cellular and synaptic level questions in vivo and, powerfully, relate these findings to changes in network dynamics and behavior. Finally, we employ fiber photometry to monitor the activity of neuromodulators such as dopamine and serotonin in various brain areas before, during and after treatment with psychoactive compounds commonly used in psychiatry.
