We investigate principles of computation in meso-scale biological neural networks, and the role of these networks in shaping animal behavior. We work in collaboration with experimental neuroscientists recording neural activity in freely moving animals engaged in complex behaviors, to investigate how animals' environments, actions, and internal states are represented across multiple brain areas. Our work is especially inspired by the interaction between subcortical neural populations organized into heavily recurrent neural circuits, including basal ganglia and nuclei of the hypothalamus.

Project in the lab include 1) developing novel supervised, semi-supervised, and unsupervised approaches to studying the structure of animal behavior, 2) using behavior as a common basis with which to model the interactions between multiple brain areas, and 3) studying computation and dynamics in networks of heterogenous neurons communicating with multiple neuromodulators and neuropeptides. The lab will also soon begin collecting behavioral data from freely interacting mice in a variety of model lines and animal conditions, to better chart the space of interactions between animal state and behavior expression. Come join us!