Our Labs
John Assad
Professor, Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
Project 2 PI
My lab is interested in the neural basis of movement initiation. We are using self-time movements as a model for probing the role of the nigrostriatal system in movement initiation, using a combination of behavioral, optical and electrophysiological approaches.
Learn more: Assad Lab
Sandeep Robert Datta
Associate Professor, Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
Data Sciences Core and Project 4 PI
The goal of the Datta laboratory is to address how the brain extracts information from the environment and converts that information into action. Although our perspective has been deeply shaped by ethology, we work in the lab and not the field. Therefore, much of our work is about bringing the field to the lab — studying mice in as naturalistic a context as we possibly can — in the belief that understanding the brain requires exploring those purposes for which the brain evolved. We use the entire armamentarium of modern neuroscience techniques, ranging from molecular genetics to machine learning, from large-scale electrophysiology to 3D behavioral imaging.
Learn more: Datta Lab
Sam Gershman
Associate Professor, Psychology and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University
Project 1
Co-PI
My research focuses on computational cognitive neuroscience approaches to learning, memory and decision making. In the context of this project, I focus on understanding how dopamine signaling interacts with the basal ganglia and cortical regions.
Learn more: Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab
Scott Linderman
Assistant Professor of Statistics and Computer Science,
Stanford University
Institute Scholar, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Project 1
Co-PI
My research focuses on computational cognitive neuroscience approaches to learning, memory and decision making. In the context of this project, I focus on understanding how dopamine signaling interacts with the basal ganglia and cortical regions.
Learn more: Linderman Lab
Bernardo Sabatini
Professor, Neurobiology, Harvard University
Team Leader, Project 1 PI
The Sabatini laboratory seeks to uncover the mechanisms of synapse and circuit plasticity that permit new behaviors to be learned and refined. Our work within team DOPE examines decision making processes in mice by challenging them to use changing and probabilistic environmental information to choose a motor action to achieve rewards. These tasks engage the striatum and evoke dynamic dopamine signaling which is thought to be crucial to the decision making process. Here we will use modern methods of analysis of motor action with simultaneous observation of bilateral activity in the dorsal and ventral striatum to understand how features of behavior, the environment, and reward history are encoded in the striatum during dynamic decision making.
Learn more: Sabatini Lab
Naoshige Uchida
Professor, Molecular and Cellular Biology and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University
Project 4 PI
Our lab is interested in neuronal mechanisms underlying decision-making and reinforcement learning. The lab takes multidiciplinary approach combining neurophysiological experiments in behaving mice and theory.
Linda Wilbrecht
Associate Professor, Helen Wills Neuroscience, UC Berkeley
Project 5 PI
Our lab is investigating how dopamine and striatal SPNs contribute to choice and choice rejection. Currently, we are particularly interested in the role of the indirect pathway dopamine D2 expressing neurons play in choice and differential roles played by the two hemispheres in left/right choice. Our lab uses optogenetic and chemogenetic tools to manipulate behavior and fiber photometry to monitor activity in vivo.
Learn more: Wilbrecht Lab