Neurobiology of social perception and collective movement
We study the glassfish Danionella cerebrum as a model system to investigate the perceptual and neural basis of collective behavior, to understand how group-living animals use social information to guide their behavior
Danionella school using their sense of vision, allowing us to study the brain and behavior of animals interacting with virtual social partners under experimental control.
Neural basis of persistent internal states
We use larval zebrafish to examine how brain-wide dynamics and innate behaviors change with an organism’s internal state - latent variables such as fear, hunger, and arousal.
With a compact and genetically-accessible nervous system, larval zebrafish allow us to investigate how internal states alter defined sensorimotor circuits.
Adaptation of brain and behavior to ecosystem variation
As part of the Allen Discovery Center for Neurobiology in Changing Environments at The Scripps Institution of Oceanography, we are studying how the sensory neurophysiology and behavior of stickleback fish adapt to ecosystem variability and anthropogenic ocean warming.
Stickleback are found in diverse environments spanning the Pacific coast of North America, enabling comparative analysis of genetics, physiology, neural dynamics, and behavior.