The Root Lab
The lab seeks to understand the neural circuits underlying motivated behaviors driven by the sense of smell. We study the sense of smell because it is a fundamental sensory modality for rodents and elicits both innate and experience-dependent behaviors. We employ endoscopic 2-photon calcium imaging to monitor neuronal activity, and use molecular genetics, viral tracing and optogenetics to trace and manipulate the neural circuits of the mouse brain.
Overview
Olfactory perception begins by the recognition of odorants by a large repertoire of receptors in the sensory epithelium. Neurons expressing a given receptor are distributed in epithelium but project with precision to spatially invariant glomeruli in the olfactory bulb. Thus, odor is represented in a pattern of activated glomeruli. The activity of individual glomeruli is propagated to multiple third order olfactory areas including the anterior olfactory nucleus, cortical amygdala, lateral entorhinal cortex, olfactory tubercle, and piriform cortex. It remains largely unclear what function is served by these parallel outputs, however, in previous work, we demonstrated that the OB projection to the cortical amygdala plays a critical role in innate attraction and aversion to odor. Our research focuses on understanding olfactory processing in these third order areas and how sensory representation transforms in their outputs to downstream structures.
Latest News
The lab gets it’s first major funding
In June 2020, we received our first R01 funded by the NIDCD! The grant is for work on the innate olfactory circuitry.
Cory wins 2019 Hellman fellowship
Cory was selected as 2019 Hellman Fellow, provided funds for a new line of research.
The lab opens July 2016
Cory arrived at UCSD on July 1st of 2016. The lab was empty but clean. Later that month Kiana Miamoto joined as the lab manager.