​We are working to understand how neurons in the brain communicate with each other to allow them to encode emotional behaviours and make decisions. Problems with this communication underlie the vast majority of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases, and so our aim is to find novel ways to combat these diseases by gaining a greater understanding of the processes that they destroy.  

Our work focuses on a part of the brain called the ventral hippocampus, an area crucial for learning and motivation, and a key node in the transition to mental illness. We use a combination of in vivo and in vitro viral expression, two-photon microscopy, optogenetics, electrophysiology and behavioural assays to identify and characterise the neural circuitry underlying the generation of behaviour, and how this is altered in disease