LABORATORY OF SENSORY PERCEPTION
How do we perceive objects and events? How does the brain optimize our ability to detect and discriminate? How do we volitionally control our sensations, and what goes awry when this ability is impaired and our perceptions are altered?
To address these questions we study neurobiological mechanisms that control the perceptions of touch and pain, and how experiences such as chronic pain and exposure to drugs—especially during early brain development—affect these mechanisms. These investigations allow us to better understand the neurobiology of perception, and to develop therapies for chronic pain and drug misuse conditions.
Lab News
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The fruit of our collaboration with Sarah Ross' laboratory is published: Medullary kappa-opioid receptor neurons inhibit pain and itch through a descending circuit. Brain, awac189.
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Dr. Jason Alipio successfully defended his Ph.D.dissertation! He is now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
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Catherine Haga and Jeff Koenig both passed their qualifying exams and advanced to candidacy.
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Jason's last chapter of his dissertation is published in J. Neurosci.: Environmental Enrichment Mitigates the Long-Lasting Sequelae of Perinatal Fentanyl Exposure in Mice