Techniques

RODENT BEHAVIOR

Rodents are some of the most commonly used animal models in behavioral neuroscience research as they exhibit a wide variety of behaviors that parallel human disease phenotypes. Behavioral paradigms being used include: 

  • Conditioned place preference (CPP)

  • Autoshaping behavior

  • Binge Eating

  • Locomotor response to drugs of abuse

  • Forced swim test 

  • Open Field

  • Morris Water Maze

  • Sucrose Preference

  • Delayed Discounting Task (DDT)

  • Effort Discounting Task

  • Risky Decision Making Task

  • Context Fear Conditioning

  • Operant responding for alcohol or intravenous drugs

AWAKE-BEHAVING ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY

This work utilizes recordings of local field potentials within targeted brain regions to advance our understanding of the neural circuitry dysfunction thought to underlie many neuropsychiatric disorders.

FOCAL BRAIN STIMULATION

We theorize that interventions targeting network-level dysfunction could be useful for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. Our work evaluates the use of brain activity to guide the targeting and tuning of cutting-edge brain stimulation interventions to correct dysfunctional brain activity. We use electrophysiological and brain imaging read-outs paired with advanced computational approaches (machine learning) to understand how to transform problematic brain activity back to normal.

NEUROIMAGING

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques to illuminate structural and functional deficits, we can better understand the link between dysfunctional brain networks and behavioral phenotypes with relevance to neuropsychiatric conditions.

COMPUTATIONAL APPROCHES

We use a variety of computational approaches (including linear/logistic regressions, PCA, SVM, lasso/elastic net, and mixed-effects models) to decode neural data. These methods allow us to detect group differences (e.g., male vs. female, high vs. low impulsivity, and successful vs. unsuccessful intervention) and predict behaviors (e.g., when a rat is currently, or about to, consume substances, and if a rat is going to choose an immediate/small reward vs. a delayed/large reward).