Techniques and Analyses

We use a combination of viral methods and molecular tools to perturb, manipulate, and visualize brain activity along with cell-specific imaging:

• in-vivo single-cell calcium imaging (miniscopes)
• chemogenetics
• optogenetics
• immunohistochemistry

We model behavioral inflexibility and drug taking using gold-standard preclinical models:

• Intravenous self-administration of methamphetamine
• 2-bottle choice alcohol drinking

We partner these techniques with custom-designed behavioral paradigms combined with a variety of analytical methods:

• Generalized Linear Models (GLMs)
• Machine Learning (SVM decoding)
• Motion and postural tracking

to decode and better understand brain and behavior relationships