We ask obvious questions like...
We think these are important but daunting questions, yet if we approach them rigorously and with humility and open minds we can learn something by asking them. For example, we know that early-life stress or deprivation can have lifelong effects on mental health in humans, but we don't really know how. Because this relationship between early-life experience and adult behaviour is true in all animals, we can hopefully investigate the biological processes at work in a simpler context.
We try to answer these questions by measuring neural activity and behaviour, then experimentally manipulating both to test ideas about how it all works. The answers lead us to new understanding of how genes, molecules, and cells function in the brain.
- How do animals work?
- What structure and functional properties of neural circuits determine behaviour?
- How are these properties changed by experience and by the environment, particularly in early-life?
- Where should we go for lab lunch?
We think these are important but daunting questions, yet if we approach them rigorously and with humility and open minds we can learn something by asking them. For example, we know that early-life stress or deprivation can have lifelong effects on mental health in humans, but we don't really know how. Because this relationship between early-life experience and adult behaviour is true in all animals, we can hopefully investigate the biological processes at work in a simpler context.
We try to answer these questions by measuring neural activity and behaviour, then experimentally manipulating both to test ideas about how it all works. The answers lead us to new understanding of how genes, molecules, and cells function in the brain.
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