A window into prefrontal input. How do neural networks within the mammalian prefrontal cortex guide strategy and decision-making? Shown here are the locations of nearly 30,000 neurons across 50 distinct brain regions in over 20 mice that send direct input signals to layer V projection neurons. These inputs help to process executive functions, such as monitoring the results of recent actions, to determine whether to keep or to change one’s decision-making strategy. Understanding the input-output relationship in this pathway could lead to breakthroughs in a range of psychiatric and neurodegenerative illnesses. (Zoom through for a closer look, click [NEXT] to view prefrontal ouputs)
About
I’m a research neurobiologist focused on the physiological substrates of executive functioning within higher-order association areas of the brain. I use a range of tools, including optogenetics, chemogenetics, extra-cellular electrophysiology, 2-photon and light field imaging, calcium and voltage indicators, pharmacology, custom robotics, and advanced statistics to investigate how the coordinated activity of biological neural networks processes information. I am currently an Instructor in Neuroscience are Weill Cornell Medicine in the lab of Conor Liston, and I completed my Ph.D. with Joshua Gordon at Columbia University.
