Description:

The department of Physiology welcomes Tianyi Mao, Ph.D.

I plan to discuss our progress in understanding the neuronal connectivity between the cortex, thalamus, and striatum, which are essential for sensation, motor control, decision making, and reward. By using whole brain imaging combined with novel computational algorithms, we have established the comprehensive connectivity diagrams for the mouse thalamo-cortico-striatal pathways at the mesoscopic scale. Based on these connectomic maps, we have established quantitative descriptions of the subdivisions in the thalamus and striatum, and have identified novel functional domains. Functional studies revealed that the organization of thalamo-cortico-striatal circuits are both cell type- and subregion-dependent. I will also present our on-going work on the neuromodulation of the thalamo-cortico-striatal circuits by norepinephrine, dopamine and opioids using novel imaging modality we recently established.