Circuit Diagrams

PROJECT SUMMARY The precise assembly of neural circuits ensures accurate neurological function and behavior. For example, to communicate specific aspects of the visual world to the brain, retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) find and form synaptic contacts with specific postsynaptic partners out of the heterogeneous neuronal population of retino-recipient areas in the brain. One such area is the superior colliculus (SC), which receives direct retinal inputs and sends commands for direct innate behaviors such as escape or prey capture.

Project Summary/Abstract This proposal responds to an FOA (RFA-NS-18-030) calling for 1) “novel approaches to understand neural circuitry associated with well-defined social behaviors;” 2) Distributed circuits that contribute to the coordination of motivational states and reward behavior;” 3) “Empirical and analytical approaches to understand how behavioral states are emergent properties of the interaction of neurons, circuits and networks.” The study of subcortical circuits that control conserved, naturalistic behaviors is crucial to understanding brain function.

Project Summary Internal sodium balance is critical for many physiological functions, including osmoregulation and action potentials. Deciphering the mechanisms that control sodium intake is essential for understanding the principles of appetite regulation and sodium homeostasis in the body. Our understanding of central sodium appetite regulation is still lacking compared to other appetite circuits such as thirst and hunger. I propose to study this fundamental brain circuit that controls our internal ion balance using transcriptomic and molecular genetic tools.

Genetic and neural mechanisms underlying emerging social behavior in zebrafish Our goal is to understand emerging collective behaviors of groups, such as schooling and shoaling in fish. Our approach is to dissect basic sensorimotor transformations in the zebrafish, which we believe play a fundamental role in explaining emerging social interactions.

Project Summary / Abstract Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome (LGS) is a devastating form of childhood onset epilepsy with cognitive dysfunction and very frequent generalized onset seizures (GOS) often leading to injury. Driven by the lack of effective therapies and the demonstrated safety and efficacy of brain-responsive stimulation for medically intractable focal onset seizures (FOS), this study will test whether brain-responsive neurostimulation of thalamocortical networks (RNS-TCN) is a feasible strategy to treat LGS.

Project Summary Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that leads to both motor and non-motor symptoms. While there is as yet no cure for PD, medical and surgical therapies have been developed that effectively target the motor symptoms of PD. Non-motor symptoms are far more disabling for patients, precede the onset of motor symptoms by a decade, are more insidious in onset, have been less apparent to clinicians, and are less effectively treated.

SUMMARY ABSTRACT More than 1.2 million people in the United States have a spinal cord injury (SCI), and each year there are 10,000 new cases. In the last few years, we have shown that neuromodulation using epidural stimulation of the lumbosacral spinal cord can activate latent neural circuits and restore voluntary movement, standing and stepping in individuals with chronic SCI. One participant in this study also reported gains in bladder function following training with spinal cord epidural stimulation.

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Respiratory failure after spinal cord injury (SCI) impairs the health of the injured patients, and respiratory failure is the leading cause of death in patients with SCI. Treatment of respiratory failure consists of mechanical ventilation, in which a mechanical pump is used to facilitate air exchange with the lungs. Mechanical ventilation is invasive, costly, limiting, and carries with it a high risk of complications and death.

PROJECT SUMMARY Tourette syndrome (TS) is a continuous lifelong condition that is highly prevalent, socially disabling, and in some severe cases, physically injurious. DBS has emerged as a promising treatment option for addressing uncontrollable tics in medically resistant and severe cases of TS frequently involving self-injurious behavior. We have undertaken a major informatics initiative by establishing the International TS DBS Registry and Database, a multi-country consortium that has captured long term outcomes of 277 TS DBS patients representing 50-75% of all TS DBS cases worldwide.