Using Mice to Study Decision-Making

Research in my lab focuses on understanding the neural circuits that enable flexible decision-making. Every day we make hundreds of decisions. Should I choose an original glazed or a honey cruller? Should I even eat a donut? Answering such questions relies on processing different types of information, such as sensory cues, past experience, context, and motivational state. When contingencies change, we adapt. The capacity to be flexible in choice behavior is a remarkable and essential part of our cognitive life. In this talk, I will discuss two recent projects in which we taught mice to perform decision-making tasks, and characterized the role of frontal cortex in flexible behaviors.