Investigating How the Brain Updates Reward Memories to Guide Decision-Making
WHAT WE DO
Our research delves into the brain's mechanisms for preserving details of matters important to us and how this repository is dynamically refreshed to accommodate environmental shifts and guide behavior.
HOW WE DO IT
behavior
Our lab has developed several tasks to evaluate memory and goal-directed behavior
stereotaxic neurosurgery
We manipulate the activity of neuronal networks to identify how these circuits modulate behavior and how they affect other neural populations
In-vivo electrophysiology
We record the activity of many neurons simultaneously while rats are being exposed to changes in reward or while they are doing memory tasks to uncover the language that the brain uses to control behavior
Immuno-histochemistry
We use histological techniques to identify the specific neurons and brain regions engaged in the behaviors we are studying.
Stereotaxic neurosurgery illustration: DOI 10.5281/zenodo.3926052
Our lab would like to acknowledge that the territory on which we gather when on campus is the ancestral and unceded land of the Nonotuck people. We want to pay respect to the Nonotuck and other Indigenous stewards of these lands and waters and to their elders who have lived here, who live here now, and who will live here in the future.