What we do

Our research projects

Neuropixels

Q1

Why do some brains walk away from drugs?

Which striatal and cortical neurons signal a mouse's move away from drug seeking, recorded with Neuropixels.

Repeated drug use can lead to compulsive seeking and loss of control, the core of a substance use disorder. But not everyone who uses drugs develops these patterns. We look for the brain mechanisms behind that resilience, to find new targets for non-invasive neuromodulation therapies.

We study how neurons in the striatum and the cortical areas that project to it encode the transition away from drug seeking. With high-density electrophysiology, closed-loop optogenetics and latent factor analysis, we aim to isolate the neural signatures that accompany disengagement from drug use and then amplify them. Shifting the question from vulnerability to resilience opens new ways to understand and treat addiction.

  • Neuropixels recordings
  • Closed-loop optogenetics
  • Statistical and computational modeling

Development

Q2

Does the pregnant brain process rewards differently?

How drugs taken during pregnancy change the mother's oxytocin and dopamine signaling after birth.

Pregnancy reshapes the brain about as much as adolescence does, yet the long-term effects of drug use at this stage are understudied. Most work has focused on the offspring and overlooked the mother and her postpartum mental health.

We study how psychoactive drugs taken during pregnancy disrupt the mother's brain, focusing on the oxytocin system and its role in postpartum motivation and reward. In rodent models we test how these drugs interfere with oxytocin signaling in the hypothalamus and how that in turn changes dopamine signaling after birth. The work combines in vivo imaging, behavioral economics and electrophysiology.

  • In vivo imaging
  • Behavioral economics
  • Electrophysiology

eCB signal during drug self-administration

Photometry

Q3

How do endocannabinoids decide which cues get our attention?

How endocannabinoid signaling in prefrontal cortex steers attention toward cues that predict reward or punishment.

Animals survive by deciding which cues in their environment matter, a property called salience. This has long been credited to the mesolimbic dopamine system, but other neuromodulators, including the endocannabinoid system, also play a part.

We study how endocannabinoid signaling in the prefrontal cortex shifts attention toward cues that predict reward or punishment. We take apart the molecular machinery that generates, receives and computes this lipid signal, and measure how it shapes the way cortical neurons encode salience. Finding these circuit and cellular mechanisms should show how a dysregulated endocannabinoid system contributes to psychiatric conditions such as substance use disorders.

  • Molecular tools
  • Cortical recordings

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