Keywords
Clinical Conditions
Equipment & Techniques
Science Culture
Our lab studies neuronal plasticity and its links to behaviour in the mouse olfactory system. Faced with an ever-changing environment, animals must process sensory inputs to produce appropriate behavioural responses. Neuronal plasticity is fundamental to accomplish this but how adaptive control is achieved at the cellular and network level remains poorly defined. Importantly, the way that circuits, such as those in the early olfactory system, respond and adapt to incoming signals needs to be optimized both for learning (e.g., to discriminate strawberry and banana) and also to assure homeostasis and behavioural stability (e.g., maintaining the ability to detect strawberry smell after temporary anosmia). We are also fascinated by dopamine (it’s in the olfactory bulb too!), and by neurons capable of the most striking type of plasticity: the ability to undergo adult neurogenesis.
