Research output per year
Research output per year
Professor of Neuroscience, Alan A and Edith L Wolff Professor of Neuroscience
Willing to Mentor
Available to Mentor:
PhD/MSTP Students
Research activity per year
The nervous system translates thoughts into action, but the details of exactly how this occurs are unknown. The basal ganglia, once thought to be solely involved with movement, are now appreciated as having a complex role in action selection, learning, and motor initiation. Many neuropsychiatric disorders (Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder, addiction, stuttering) involve aberrations in the crucial step from “desire to move” to the actual “movement.” Utilizing the first genetic animal model of stuttering combined with optogenetic, electrophysiological, and genetic approaches, we address two fundamental aspects of motor behavior: 1) What goes awry in diseases where the initiation of motor sequences fails? and 2) How do the basal ganglia contribute to translating thought into actions?
Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review