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How do we decide where to move?
My research interest revolves around understanding how the brain handles sensory information from the environment to then weight and integrates all this information to produce the motor responses associated with goal-directed specific behaviors.
The brain is complicated!!! To be able to decipher and understand how our brains work I take a multilevel approach using a series of different techniques, from patch-clamp single-cell recordings, extracellular high-density electrophysiology, pathway-specific optogenetics, and behavioral assays to investigate how the activity of individual neurons or specific groups of neurons integrate sensory information to produce motor actions and behaviors.
Role of the nigro-collicular circuit in the generation of orienting movements
Role of the nigro-collicular circuit in the generation of orienting movements
The current model describing how orienting movements are initiated proposes that the basal ganglia (BG) play a permissive role in the generation of these movements through modulation of the amount of inhibition from the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) on targets structures such as the superior colliculus (SC). Using optogenetics to specifically activate the nigro-collicular pathway, we aim to unveil the complexities of the circuits underlying the initiation of orienting movements.
Role of the superior colliculus (SC) and the nigro-collicular pathway in Parkinson's (PD) disease
Role of the superior colliculus (SC) and the nigro-collicular pathway in Parkinson's (PD) disease
It has been shown that dysregulation of the basal ganglia function contributes to the symptomatology associated with the motor impairments characteristics of patients affected by Parkinson's Disease (PD). Since the SC is involved in the initiation of goal-oriented movements and received and projects inputs from and to the basal ganglia, one of the structures known to be affected during PD, I am to investigate whether the SNr-SC/SC-SNc circuits get affected in a mouse model of PD.
Are there any changes in the strength or distribution of the inhibitory inputs from the SNr-SC circuit?
Are there changes in the biophysical properties of collicular neurons between the early and late stages of a mouse PD model?
Gamma oscillations in the hippocampus induced by the H1 antihistaminic pyrilamine in rats
Gamma oscillations in the hippocampus induced by the H1 antihistaminic pyrilamine in rats
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