Laboratory of Adaptive Behavior (LAB)

The goal of our research is to understand the neural mechanisms of behaviors that are disrupted in psychiatric and neurological illnesses. We aim to understand the neurobiology of decision-making, with a particular emphasis on the processes that underlie motivated behavior.

Eleanor Simpson leads projects related to effort-based decision making:

Optimal decisions are made by considering the relative value of different costs and benefits. Poor decision-making occurs when costs or benefits are misvalued (either underweighted or overweighted), or if the mechanism for cost-benefit computation is flawed. These fundamental processes are disrupted in several neurological and psychiatric disorders, and because the biological mechanisms are not well understood, symptoms are untreated, impacting patients’ quality of life. For example, patients with schizophrenia and some types of affective disorders overemphasize anticipated effort relative to anticipated gains. As a result, patients experience behavioral apathy, a reduction in goal-directed activity, and initiative.  We aim to understand the brain circuits that regulate effort-based decision-making in health and disease.

Peter Balsam leads projects related to timing and anticipation:

Humans and other animals use temporal maps of their experiences to make decisions. How the brain encodes time for behavioral adaptation is still fundamentally unknown, but of critical clinical importance. The ability to use time in cognitive processes like attention, learning, and memory is disrupted in neuropsychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease. Timing is also disrupted by certain classes of drugs, including classical and non-classical psychedelics. We aim to understand these processes in health and in disease. 

The techniques we use:

To understand the neurobiology of decision-making processes, we use mouse models with a variety of advanced neuroscience techniques. We use in vivo methods to monitor brain activity and neuromodulator release in real-time while mice are performing automated behavioral tasks that we custom-develop in the lab. Currently, we are using in vivo fiber photometry to measure calcium activity (somatic and terminal) in genetically identified and projection-specific neuronal populations or to monitor the release of neurochemicals such as dopamine, serotonin, or acetylcholine. To test potential causal mechanisms for defined behaviors, we use chemogenetics and optogenetics to bidirectionally control neuronal activity.  We also use in vitro techniques including cellular level whole brain imaging to quantify neural activity in response to behavioral events or drug treatments.