Brain and Cognitive Sciences

When we think of behavior, we think of neural code, and when we think of neurons and neuronal networks, we think of neural dynamics. The link between brain and behavior thus resides at the intersection between the neural code and neural dynamics. The long-term objective of research in my lab is to understand (1) how neurons and neural circuits generate and control dynamic patterns of activity, and (2) how those patterns encode behaviorally relevant information. 

We tackle these question by performing experiments on animals trained to perform a wide array of cognitive tasks that require anticipation, integration, coordination, and timing – functions that depend on the brain’s internally-generated dynamics. We combine psychophysics, electrophysiology, optogenetics, machine learning, and computational modeling to uncover the mechanisms that shape neural dynamics, and the principles that put those dynamics to use in the control of behavior.