Research
Value-based decision making requires making choices based on expected outcomes, such as rewards and associated costs. We make this type of choice all the time, from choosing what to eat for breakfast to picking a major in college or a place to live. Mice, like most animals, primarily make these choices when foraging for food. Therefore, to study the neural circuit mechanisms of value-based decision making, we use tasks inspired by natural foraging behavior to tap into the natural processes mice engage when making these choices.
Broadly, we are interested in understanding how large-scale cortico-subcortical circuits process and combine multiple types of information to make value-based choices. Our ongoing projects are described below.
Novel decision-making tasks inspired by natural behavior
To test hypotheses about how the brain processes the many types of information needed to make value-based choices, we develop novel decision-making tasks inspired by natural behavior.
Value computations in cortico-basal ganglia loops
How are multiple types of information (e.g., costs and benefits) processed and combined by cortico-basal ganglia loops to influence choice? We explore this question by recording and manipulating multiple nodes of the cortico-basal ganglia circuit to understand how value is computed across these structures.
Influences of opioid dependence on neural computations of value
Diagnostic criteria for addiction include the pursuit of drugs despite negative consequences and at the expense of other rewards. How this may relate to distinct changes in the valuation of drug and non-drug rewards remains unclear. It is also unclear how neural circuit computations of value are affected by drug dependence.
Choosing to choose
In addition to choosing which action to perform within a task, animals must decide to perform that task in the first place. For instance, foraging for food comes at the expense of behaviors such as sleeping or looking for a mate. We are also interested in understanding this level of behavioral organization and its neural mechanisms.
We will also use this framework to build on previous work showing sex differences in the relationship between value and task engagement, to explore sex differences in how and when mice choose to engage and disengage from different tasks.
Our research is generously supported by:
Completed support:
