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My research focuses on how drives to seek rewards, such as food, water, and social interactions, shape behaviors. I investigate the questions of how animals learn which actions will lead to rewards and how these rewards influence decision-making processes. My work has contributed to influential hypotheses regarding the striatum, which is a major hub in the reward circuit mediating these functions. Nonetheless, due to technical limitations, it has historically been challenging to test these ideas rigorously. By integrating a wide array of technical approaches, including optogenetics, behavioral studies in rodents, electrophysiology, imaging techniques, and computational modeling, my lab aims to provide new insights into the circuit-level mechanisms that underlie these fundamental processes of behavior.
GRE scores are not accepted. Ph.D. is the primary degree; students are not required to hold an M.S.E. prior to admission.