Current research in the lab encompasses three areas:

1. The analysis of cortico-basal ganglia networks using wired and wireless in vivo stimulation and recording in awake, behaving rodents combined with permanent and reversible lesions, optogenetics, and local pharmacological manipulations.

2. The analysis of voluntary behavior using operant procedures as well as video-based and automatic parsing of natural behaviors.

3. The cellular and molecular mechanisms of synaptic transmission and plasticity in the basal ganglia, a set of brain structures critical for the generation and selection of voluntary behaviors: e.g. the contributions of dopamine, adenosine, opioids, and endocanabinoids to glutamatergic and GABAergic transmission and plasticity.