Main Research Areas
Synapse Remodeling in Learning and Memory Formation
Synapses are the principal sites at which neurons contact and communicate with one another. Experience-dependent modification of synaptic structure and function provides a cellular mechanism for learning and memory. My lab studies how the neuronal circuitry is established during development, and how it is rewired during learning and memory formation. Learn more…
Cortical Circuitry Modification in Stress and Psychiatric Disorders
Combining behavioral analyses, chronic synaptic imaging, and cell type-specific manipulations, we explored how stressful experiences affect local cortical circuits. We showed that stress leads to progressive, clustered loss of dendritic spines on pyramidal neurons in the mouse barrel cortex, and that such spine loss closely associates with degraded performance in a whisker-dependent texture discrimination task. Learn more…
Glial Contribution to Synaptic Dynamics and Diseases
This dogma is now being challenged, as recent studies have shown that glia are integral to neuronal circuit reorganization and are implicated in many neuropathologies. Our recent work investigates the role of glia in excitatory synaptic transmission and structural plasticity. Learn more…