1) Axonal control of striatal dopamine release. 

Neurons deliver somatically-generated signals to their downstream targets via all-or-none action potentials that propagate along axons.  Rather than being blind followers of somatic firing, a guiding hypothesis of our laboratory's research is that information propagating in axons is processed locally by receptors located on axons.

To examine the mechanisms of dopamine signaling in the striatum, we combine direct axonal recordings with calcium imaging.