Research
Our lab investigates how neural circuits generate instinctive behaviors—and how these circuits are reshaped by internal states and across the lifespan to produce adaptive actions. Instinctive behaviors such as parenting, feeding, mating, aggression, and hunting are orchestrated by genetically pre-specified circuits and can be expressed with little prior learning. These behaviors offer a unique window into linking gene expression, circuit architecture, and behavioral function.
Although traditionally viewed as “hard-wired,” we now know that the operation of these circuits depends profoundly on an animal’s physiological and experiential state. Our research aims to uncover the cellular and circuit-level mechanisms through which states such as pregnancy or hunger alter neural processing in vivo, and how these changes enable appropriate behavioral repertoires at different life stages.
By combining circuit neuroscience, behavioral profiling, and molecular and cellular approaches, we seek to transform our understanding of how the brain balances evolutionary stability with plasticity—providing insight into fundamental brain function as well as its vulnerability in health and disease.
Neural Circuit basis of instinct
We investigate the functional circuit architecture underlying instinctive behaviors, such as parenting. We are driven by biological questions and use state-of-the-art systems neuroscience approaches (e.g., viral tracing, in vivo imaging, electrophysiology, optogenetics, behavioral assays) to answer them.
Circuit logic of internal state changes
We address how physiological states such as pregnancy, stress, sleep, or hunger affect information processing in neural circuits and orchestrate adaptive behavioral changes, with a particular focus on hormone-mediated states.
Tool development
We are developing viral-genetic tools to delineate and interrogate the neural circuits underlying instinctive behaviors and to determine how the function of such circuits is affected by internal states.