Mehran Ahmadlou
Group Leader
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” — attributed to Charles Darwin Our lab is driven by a simple principle: the ability to flexibly adapt behaviour is essential for survival. Yet this flexibility is often compromised in the prevalent neuropsychiatric disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, schizophrenia, and major depressive disorder. We aim to uncover the neural mechanisms of behavioural flexibility in both health and disease. In particular, we investigate how specific neurons and circuits across cortical and subcortical brain areas process and integrate internal states, external stimuli, prior experience, and competing motivations to shape and adapt behavioural strategies in foraging and defensive contexts. To achieve this, we develop novel behavioural paradigms and combine them with cutting-edge approaches such as miniaturized two-photon microscopy, multi-region brain imaging, Neuropixels recordings in freely moving mice, fibre photometry, EEG/EMG/ECG/body temperature monitoring, pupillometry, opto-/chemo-genetics, advanced viral circuit tracing, single-cell sequencing, and computational modelling. If you are interested in knowing more about what we do or if you would like to join the 'Neurobehavior Lab', please contact mehran@neurobehaviorlab.com or mehran.ahmadlou@dpag.ox.ac.uk