Final Report Summary - OPTONEUROMOD (Optical dissection of prefrontal neuromodulation: from synapses through networks to behavior)
OPTONEUROMOD is a project aimed at developing and utilizing advanced optical techniques for understanding how specific brain systems interact to guide complex behavioral processes such as attention, memory and emotion. Using cutting-edge optical and genetic engineering techniques, the team in Dr. Yizhar's laboratory is developing technologies for controlling the activity of defined brain pathways in order to assign these pathways with specific roles in the complex network of the brain. The team develops innovative optogenetic techniques, which utilize light for modifying the activity of neurons, in order to understand how the prefrontal cortex interact with limbic and other subcortical systems to regulate cognitive and emotional processes. Achieving a better understanding of how these systems operate in the healthy brain will also shed light on the mechanisms by which they are impaired in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disease.