Affiliate Members

Behavior neuroscience and genetics with a focus on the 'nature-nurture' theme of genetics and cognitive behavior; genetics of compulsive behaviors (such as alcoholism and drug addiction) and neuro-sensory disorders (such as diabetic neuropathy and neuropathic pain); techniques utilized include molecular genetics, animal behavior models, and machine learning algorithms with statistics/bioinformatics models for neuro-behavior pattern analysis

Machine learning, robotics, planning and learning in partially observable domains, reinforcement learning

Image interpretation using planning and learning techniques; methods of theory formation for classification, configuration, planning and design problems with biomedical applications

Developing computational models to learn generalizable and human-readable representations from unlabeled data, with a focus on natural language processing; reliance on mathematical frameworks such as Information theory; interest in applications of learned representations to practical problems such as entity linking

Investigations of the molecular mechanisms regulating dendritic spine morphogenesis and synaptic plasticity

Molecular mechanisms underlying sensory and cognitive function in mouse models of human diseases; understanding how mutations in chromatin remodeling proteins results in hyperactivity and circling behavior in mutant mice with the goal of bridging the molecular changes in neurons to the abnormal behavior observed in these mouse models

Modeling of human neurodevelopmental disorders in mouse with a particular focus on Tourette Syndrome (TS); using CRISPR-based approaches to generate mouse models that harbor recently discovered human point mutations found in sporadic forms of TS; using these models to investigate how circuit development and function in the brain are perturbed by the human mutations using a combination of mouse genetics, circuit labeling techniques, optogenetics, electrophysiology, and mouse behavior

Philosophy and psychopathology (especially disorders of self); phenomenological philosophy; Wittgenstein; philosophical aspects of psychoanalysis