Armin Lak - Neuroscience - 'Circuit Mechanisms of Learning and Decision Making'

How the brain integrates external sensory signals with internal reward and motivational signals for making decisions? How the brain learns over time to make better decisions? Our aim is to find quantitative circuit-level answers to these questions. We particularly focus on understanding the roles that frontal-striatal circuits play during decision-making, and how neuromodulators, in particular the dopamine signals, shape these circuits to guide learning. We employ a multi-disciplinary approach including high-count electrophysiology, multi-photon imaging, optogenetics, highly-controlled behavioural tasks in mice, and extensive computational modelling. Projects in the lab can be flexible along these themes, and may include experiments as well as computational work.