Dr. Robert Rozeske

Biography

Robert Rozeske's research team investigates how traumatic experiences modify the neuronal circuits responsible for memory formation and how these alterations promote flexible defensive behaviors in response to future challenges. He uses a multi-method approach to record behavioral and neurophysiological data streams in parallel, allowing a link between the temporal dynamics of fear behavior and neuronal circuit activity levels. His group combines fiber photometry, microendoscope calcium imaging, single unit electrophysiology, and 3D behavioral tracking with intersectional optogenetic techniques to understand how neuronal circuits identify contexts that are threatening versus safe and generate fear, avoidance, and anxiety behaviors in threatening contexts. This approach aims to reveal the neuronal circuit activity responsible for emotional behavior, establishing pathways for novel therapeutics for mental illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder. He received his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Steven F. Maier at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where he explored the psychological dimensions of behavioral control during stressors. Following his PhD, he conducted postdoctoral studies at INSERM in Bordeaux under Dr. Cyril Herry, examining the activity of the prefrontal-periaqueductal gray circuit in the context of fear discrimination, before continuing to study context representations in Dr. Mark Brandon’s lab at McGill University. In April 2021, he opened a systems neuroscience laboratory in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

Research Interests