Dr. Ilana Witten

Biography

Ilana Witten's research focuses on neural circuits involved in reward learning and decision-making. Her work investigates how drives such as the pursuit of food, water, and social interactions shape behavior. The lab addresses key questions, such as how animals learn which actions lead to rewards and how these rewards influence decision-making processes, particularly when the underlying circuitry is altered in disease states. Over the years, Witten has conducted extensive experimental and theoretical studies that have contributed to influential hypotheses about the striatum, a major hub in the brain's reward circuitry that mediates a variety of functions. Due to previous technical constraints, rigorously testing these ideas has been challenging. However, her lab is now integrating a wide range of technical approaches, including optogenetics, rodent behavior, electrophysiology, imaging, and computational modeling, to provide new insights into the circuit-level mechanisms that underpin fundamental processes in reward-related behavior.

Research Interests