Funded Awards

PROJECT SUMMARY Postnatal sensory experience has a profound effect on the maturation, composition, and connectivity of cortical cell types, but systematic analyses of these changes have not yet been feasible.

Abstract Movements are measurable outputs of the nervous system and simple movements can be combined to compose complicated behaviors. We use limb tracking and connectome analyses to map the neural circuits controlling the elemental leg movements in Drosophila grooming.

Project Summary/Abstract Mental disorders that affect the hippocampus disrupt people’s ability to form one-shot memories. My goal is to lead an independent lab, linking biological properties of hippocampal neurons to the ability to perform memory- guided cognitive behaviors.

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT. Research Project: Spatial memory – memory of where an event happened or an object was located – depends on the hippocampus in a wide range of vertebrate species, including mammals and birds. In humans, most spatial memories are formed through visual experience.

Summary: Behavioral data is central to biomedical research, including both synchronous measures (e.g. brain activation and button-presses from a reading task in an fMRI scan), and those performed independently (e.g.

Project Summary Over the decades, various neurotechnologies have made significant advancements to meet the highest priority goals enumerated in the BRAIN 2025 Report.

PROJECT SUMMARY This UH3 application seeks to address the major public health burden of treatment-resistant major depression (trMDD) by developing a novel form of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS).

Abstract Sleep occupies a large part of our lives and is widely believed to perform essential functions. During sleep, the neuronal rules of engagement and population dynamics are clearly different than waking.

PROJECT SUMMARY To guide decisions, visual information must flow from primary visual cortex (V1) to prefrontal cortex (PFC), via multiple, parallel cortico-cortical and cortico-thalamo-cortical connections.

PROJECT SUMMARY The goal of this project is to provide the building blocks for an independent research program focused on the neural basis of reward-based memory across distributed brain networks.

Over the past 15 years, new microscope technologies and methods for high throughput imaging have revolutionized structural biology by extending the resolution and scale of datasets in 3 dimensions.

Project Summary Single cell transcriptomics has transformed the field of brain cell type classification, allowing simultaneous measurement of enough molecular features from enough cells to categorize neurons quantitively and with high conservation across brain areas and species.

PROJECT SUMMARY Neuromodulation, such as that mediated by the neuromodulators norepinephrine, acetylcholine, and dopamine, imposes powerful control over brain function. It regulates the excitability, synaptic plasticity, and other aspects of neuronal function.

Project Abstract Current common methods for measuring somatosensory function in preclinical rodent models generally rely on withdrawal responses to uncomfortable or painful stimuli.

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Parental care is essential for offspring well-being and survival yet requires a significant invest from adults without immediate benefit, suggesting the existence of hard-wired mechanisms governing its control.

PROJECT SUMMARY: Animals constantly detect different environmental stimuli and change their behavior or physiology based on their internal state. How animals integrate the external multiple sensory information with the internal state is largely unclear.

There is a substantial need to understand the fundamental biological mechanisms of neuromodulation therapies in order to improve clinical delivery and outcomes (RFA-NS-20-006).

Essential tremor (ET) is a common neurologic disorder affecting over 10 million people in the United States. Pathologic synchrony in the cerebello-thalamo-cortical (CTC) network has been considered to underlie the development of ET.

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT Persistent activity in neural circuits supports a variety of brain functions from motor control to navigation to perceptual decision-making.

Project Summary / Abstract Increased mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling is a known cause of treatment resistant epilepsy.