Overview
I am interested in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying goal-directed actions. For the first time in history, advances in psychology and neurobiology have made it feasible to pursue the detailed neural mechanisms underlying goal-directed and voluntary actions--how they are driven by the needs and desires of the organism and controlled by cognitive processes that provide a rich representation of the self and the world. My approach to this problem is highly integrative, combining behavioral analysis with electrophysiological techniques as well as tools from molecular biology. In the near future three techniques will be emphasized. 1) Dissecting reward-guided behavior using analytical behavioral assays. 2) In vivo recording from cerebral cortex, thalamus, midbrain, and basal ganglia in awake behaving rodents. Up to hundreds of neurons can be recorded from multiple brain areas that form a functional neural network in a single animal. 3) In vitro (and ex vivo) whole-cell patch-clamp recording in brain slices, with the aid of genetic tools for visualization of distinct neuronal populations. Ultimately, I hope to characterize goal-directed actions at multiple levels of analysis--from molecules to neural networks. This knowledge will provide us with insight into various pathological conditions characterized by impaired goal-directed behaviors, such as drug addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
·
2020 - Present
Psychology & Neuroscience,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor in Neurobiology
·
2023 - Present
Neurobiology,
Basic Science Departments
Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences
·
2011 - Present
Duke Institute for Brain Sciences,
University Institutes and Centers
Affiliate of the Duke Regeneration Center
·
2021 - Present
Duke Regeneration Center,
Basic Science Departments
Recent Publications
Aligning brain and behavior
Journal Article Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences · April 1, 2025 To understand how the brain generates behavior, both brain activity and behavior must be measured accurately. Although neuroscience has developed powerful tools for measuring brain activity, its behavioral measures are far more primitive, as it lacks a coh ... Full text CiteA2A-Positive Neurons in the Nucleus Accumbens Core Regulate Effort Exertion.
Journal Article The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · April 2025 Previous work has implicated the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in the regulation of effort, defined as the amount of work an animal is willing to perform for a given reward, but little is known about the specific contributions of neuronal populations within the ... Full text CiteCalcium-activated ion channels drive atypical inhibition in medial habenula neurons.
Journal Article Sci Adv · March 21, 2025 Nicotine is an addictive substance that poses substantial health and societal challenges. Despite the known links between the medial habenula (MHb) and nicotine avoidance, the ionic mechanisms underlying MHb neuronal responses to nicotine remain unclear. H ... Full text Link to item CiteRecent Grants
The role of the ventral tegmental area in motivated behavior
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2025 - 2030Neurobiology Training Program
Inst. Training Prgm or CMEMentor · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2024 - 2029Microglial-serotonin interactions in the developing brain.
ResearchCollaborator · Awarded by National Institute of Mental Health · 2024 - 2029View All Grants
Education, Training & Certifications
University of California, Los Angeles ·
2004
Ph.D.