Systems neuroscience applied to understanding the internal states governing anxiety and traumatic experience.

Lab is located in the Yale University Department of Psychiatry, and we are also affiliated with the VA National Center for PTSD, Clinical Neurosciences Division

Neuromodulatory encoding of threat

The experience of trauma can profoundly alter perceptions of safety and emotional dynamics. We attempt to understand this process at multiple levels using optical and electrophysiological approaches in concert with computational modeling of threat perceptions. We are particularly interested in the interplay of innate and learned threats, and in the role of norepinephrine circuits in computing threat prediction errors.

 

Novel pharmacological treatments for PTSD

More effective pharmacological treatments are sorely needed for PTSD, which has a substantial lifetime burden of disability throughout the population. Recently, serotonergic agents such as MDMA, psilocybin and a multitude of related psychedelic compounds have shown promise for PTSD. We are interested in understanding the mechanisms of action of these drugs, and how they may alter circuit mechanisms of PTSD.

 

Developing circuit therapeutics for human anxiety and PTSD

Advances in implantable electrophysiological devices in humans have made it possible to better understand emotional states such as anxiety and traumatic stress. The promise of recording and stimulating defined circuits in humans may offer unique opportunities to help people with treatment-refractory PTSD. In collaboration with Dr. Eyiyemisi Damisah of Yale Neurosurgery, we work to understand and perturb the neural dynamics underlying anxiety states.

Tools:

  • Microendoscope calcium imaging, 2-photon imaging

  • Neuropixels

  • Fiber photometry of neuromodulator biosensors

  • Computational modeling of behavior

  • Computational modeling of psychiatric disorders

  • Collaborations involving intracranial EEG in humans