Systems Neuroscience

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: A major goal in neuroscience is to dissect the neural circuits that support complex behaviors. Comparative approaches are fundamental to the success of this goal, to separate species specializations from general principles, and to understand the brain in light of its evolved functions. The optical tools that have revolutionized circuit neuroscience in rodents must be expanded to investigate a broad range of species.

Project Summary  Animals  interact  with  members  of  their  own  or  other  species  in  the  context  of  social  and  defensive  behaviors, predator-­prey relationships and symbioses. In all such contexts, execution of the appropriate  kind  of  interaction  depends  on  a  sensorimotor  pathway  that  transduces  information  about  another  organism and 

Understanding overlap in resting state fMRI networks at the single cell level: a cross-species approach Abstract Resting state functional connectivity MRI (rsfcMRI) is a popular tool to investigate the intrinsic functional organization of the brain into large scale networks. Multiple different lines of investigation have pointed to the importance of densely interconnected `hub' regions for cognition and behavior. However, the functional architecture of cellular circuits in these hub regions is unknown.

Understanding human brain function requires knowledge of its connectivity: how one structure causally influences other components of the network. A wide range of neurological and psychiatric disorders prominently involve dysfunction of connectivity, including neurodegenerative diseases, autism, and mood disorders. Yet current methods provide only indirect measures of connectivity, and none can directly test how one brain structure causally influences another at the level of the whole brain.

Project Summary The rapid formation of new memories and the recall of old memories to inform decisions is essential for human cognition, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. The long-term goal of this research is a circuit-level understanding of human memory to enable the development of new treatments for the devastating effects of memory disorders. Our experiments utilize the rare opportunity to record in-vivo from human single neurons simultaneously in multiple brain areas in patients undergoing treatment for drug resistant epilepsy.

Project Summary/Abstract Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a surgical procedure that is used to treat the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's Disease (PD). In the process of surgically implanting the stimulating electrodes, surgeons and researchers have a unique opportunity to measure and manipulate the activity of individual neurons while the awake PD patient performs a perceptual, cognitive, or other kind of relatively simple task.

Project Summary/Abstract Decades of research and clinical observations have established that episodic memory, the ability to remember recently experienced events, depends on the hippocampus and associated structures in the medial temporal lobe (MTL), including entorhinal, perirhinal and parahippocampal cortices [1, 2]. It is thought that the neuronal mechanisms supporting episodic memory for spatial context involves place and grid cells found in the MTL that increase in firing rate when an animal is in a specific location during navigation [3-7].

A Brain Circuit Program for Understanding the Sensorimotor Basis of Behavior Abstract The Project team's long-term goal is to develop a comprehensive theory of animal behavior that explicitly incorporates neural processes operating across hierarchical levels — from circuits that regulate the action of individual muscles to those that regulate behavioral sequences and decisions. Our innovative approach is guided by the notion that different brain regions are not linked within a single neuroanatomical tier, but rather constitute a series of hierarchically nested feedback loops.

Project Summary During perceptual decision-making, populations of neurons, arranged in highly interconnected microcircuits, work together to encode sensory stimuli and to transform sensory perception into appropriate behavioral choices. A fundamental gap in our knowledge about perceptual decision-making is understanding how the connectivity in cortical microcircuits shapes dynamics and information codes in populations of neurons.

Summary/Abstract Pain is a national health challenge costing our economy more than $600 Billions per year.