Brain and Cognitive Science, Neuroscience
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Our overarching interest is in the question of how experience and deprivation modify synaptic connections in the brain. Experience-dependent synaptic plasticity is the physical substrate of memory, sculpts connections during postnatal development to determine the capabilities and limitations of brain functions, is responsible for the reorganization of the brain after damage, and is vulnerable in numerous psychiatric and neurological diseases and contributes to their symptoms.
Current work in the laboratory is focused on two related themes: (1) mechanisms and regulation of naturally occurring synaptic plasticity in visual cortex, and (2) pathophysiology of genetically defined developmental brain disorders. We primarily study mouse models, and we use a broad range of methods that include but are not limited to brain slice electrophysiology and biochemistry, in vivo electrophysiology and 2-photon functional and structural imaging, and behavioral analysis. Our lab is “question oriented” rather than “method oriented”. We will apply any technology that is needed to address the questions of greatest interest.