Reverse engineering cognition: from neural circuits to psychiatry

We seek to understand the neurobiological and computational principles underlying cognition and decision-making and apply these insights to biological psychiatry. We use a multi-disciplinary approach, including quantitative behaviors, electrophysiological, molecular, optogenetic, optical and computational techniques. By gaining mechanistic understanding of how brains produce cognitive behaviors, often beyond the capacity of current AI algorithms, we hope to uncover new computational principles. We are also working to build bridges from animal studies to psychiatry to understand on what goes awry in the brain during mental illness.