Research Projects

We developed an open-sourced Electrophysiology integrated Miniature Microscope (E-Scope) to investigate the involvement of the cerebellum in social behavior and to understand the correlation to the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in freely behaving animals. We find that during social interactions, a significant subpopulation of cerebellar Purkinje cells (PC) were robustly inhibited, while most modulated neurons in the dentate nucleus neurons were activated. We find that there are higher correlations between inhibited PCs and excited ACCs by social interaction. When removing the social bouts these correlations largely disappear, suggesting that cerebellar-cortical interactions were social behavior specific. Published in eLife. 

Link to paper

Worked on the development of a Miniature Ephys device (MiniE) for freely behaving animals. Developed a working prototype.

Using in vivo electrophysiology in head fixed animals, we show that different zebrin modules within a lobule of a cerebellum are modulated differently during locomotion. We prove that this type of modulation is caused by a specific type of subtype noradrenaline receptors within the local circuit. 

Published in EMBO Reports in 2019, we show that PHF2 histone demethylase is upregulated during learning and plays an essential role in memory formation. PHF2 promotes the expression of memory-related genes specifically the TrkB-CREB signaling pathway.  Link to paper