Current projects
A.K.Athe "in preparations"
Nicotine-Related Beliefs Induce Dose-Dependent Responses in the Human Brain (Gu lab)
Nicotine is the primary addictive substance in tobacco, which stimulates neural pathways mediating reward processing. Mounting evidence suggest pivotal roles for cognitive factors such as belief and expectation in addiction. Uncovering mechanisms by which belief overrides drug responses is therefore a crucial step towards treatment and management.
We use computational modeling and model-based functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the impact of suggested belief on neural learning signals.
Neural patterns dissociate traumatic from sad autobiographical memories in PTSD (Schiller lab)
For people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), recalling traumatic memories often displays as intrusions that differ profoundly from processing of ‘regular’ negative memories. These mnemonic features fueled theories speculating a qualitative divergence in cognitive state linked with traumatic memories. Yet to date, little empirical evidence supports this view. Here, we examined neural activity of PTSD patients who were listening to narratives depicting their own memories
Intracranial signatures of Social Norm Encoding (Gu Lab)
Social norms and their enforcement are fundamental for society. The ability to dynamically detect and adapt to deviations from norms is central to individuals' normal social functioning.
We capitalize on microelectrode recordings during deep brain stimulation surgeries to study neuronal activity during social decision making conjointly with neuroeconomics-inspired behavioral modeling.
Computation of threat in
the human amygdala (Schiller lab)
When facing danger, an organism is tasked with learning the precursors of threat. The amygdala is a brain region central for the encoding of threat across species. However, which threat information is encoded at the single-neuron level in the human brain is unclear. To begin and answer this question, we capitalize on an single-unit recordings from surgical patients undergoing intracranial EEG.