Research

Our lab’s main research interest is how neural activity gives rise to complex cognition and emotion, with a particular focus on the prefrontal cortex. We investigate the neural computations that underlie abilities like weighing features (cost, quality, quantity, etc.) of different options to make decisions; planning ahead and using strategies to optimize outcomes; or rapidly updating expectations in changing environments. We approach these questions by designing hypothesis-driven behavioral tasks, and then using large-scale neurophysiological recording and computational methods to investigate how the prefrontal cortex encodes information in the emergent structure and dynamics of neural activity, and how such population-level signals arise from constituent units. I also have long-standing interests in functional organization within the prefrontal cortex, which guide our studies of neural coding.