Our research seeks to better understand the developmental and circuit mechanisms underlying emergent behaviours. We use head restrained behaviours, in-vivo electrophysiology, optogenetics and anatomical tracing to investigate sensorimotor and prefrontal circuits in the mouse neocortex. We focus on two major research topics.

Development of the whisker sensorimotor system

Mice actively move their whiskers back and forth to gather tactile information from their surroundings. Two important brain regions in this sensorimotor system are the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and the primary motor cortex (M1).

Like most behaviours, newborn mice do not actively whisk and whisking develops over the first few postnatal weeks. Our goal is to obtain a mechanistic understanding of the development of whisker motor control and sensorimotor interactions in the neocortex.

Developmental basis of aberrant goal directed behaviours

Animals actively seek out sensory information that guides decision making and goal-directed motor programs. In certain neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD), aberrant goal-directed behaviours emerge due to specific developmental deficits that lead to large-scale reorganization of brain circuits.

We employ tactile and visual discrimination paradigms in genetic mouse models of ASD to understand how aberrant behaviours are encoded in cortical circuits, and how these relate to the developmental deficit in question.