The Zhou Laboratory aims to understand the neural basis of associative learning and decision-making, essential cognitive processes that endow us to construct a relational structure of the world around us and use such knowledge to solve daily problems. Inspired by contemporary associative learning theories, we develop various Pavlovian and operant tasks for rats or mice to learn and perform, combined with many correlative and causal tools at the systems neuroscience level, to dissect neural circuits responsible for these behaviors, with a focus on the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. Commonly used techniques in the lab include in vivo electrophysiology, one- or two-photon imaging, widefield imaging, optogenetics, chemogenetics, neuropharmacology, statistical analysis, machine learning, and computational modeling. With these thoughtfully-designed behavioral tasks and powerful neuroscience tools, we expect to figure out how neural population activities—in one and more brain areas—support computations necessary for associative learning and behavior.
