Neuromodulators do more than broadcast a single message.
Neuromodulators are chemical signals that tune how neural circuits process information. My lab asks how these signals interact with local circuit dynamics across seconds to minutes, allowing animals to learn, focus, remember, and adapt. We combine computational models with recordings and causal perturbations in rodents performing cognitive tasks.
How do dopamine and norepinephrine reshape prefrontal computations during working memory, sustained attention, and cognitive control? We combine optical biosensors, cellular imaging, electrophysiology, and carefully designed behavior.
DA–NE interactionsWorking memoryPrefrontal cortex
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Time and value
Reward processing across timescales
We ask how neural systems integrate reward history over different temporal horizons, and how those timescales vary across prefrontal–striatal circuits.
Reward rateStriatumComputational models
03
Local computation
How local circuits shape dopamine signals
Dopamine release can diverge from dopamine-cell firing. We study how local forebrain circuits—especially cholinergic mechanisms—sculpt motivational signals at dopamine terminals.
Dopamine releaseAcetylcholineMotivation
How we work
Multi-site, multi-color fiber photometryNeuropixels electrophysiologyOne- and two-photon imagingOptogenetic circuit perturbationHead-fixed and freely moving behaviorReinforcement-learning models
One system, distinct signals
Dopamine links learning to motivation without reducing them to the same computation.
Measurements at different points in the dopamine system can reveal different aspects of behavior.
Dopamine-cell firingLearning signals
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Local dopamine releaseMotivational state
Cell-body activity and locally regulated release can carry related—but dissociable—information.
