research

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Artwork by Julia Kuhl

The Neurobiology of Social Touch

Social touch is the foundation to bonds between loved ones.  Despite this general appreciation, how neurons in the skin connect with circuits in the brain to encode rewarding social touch remains poorly understood.  We are investigating natural behaviors that rely upon social touch – ranging from mating to lactation and mother-pup interactions. With close observation of behavior at the core, we are elucidating the “skin-brain axis” for social touch using genetic manipulations in the periphery coupled to brain imaging approaches.

Social neurobiology in naked mole rat colonies

The naked mole-rat hails from East Africa and has adapted to life underground in a eusocial structure with one breeding queen, a handful of breeding males, and a multitude of subservient caste members. A single colony can contain a few dozen or a few hundred animals. We are investigating the neurobiology of social touch in naked mole-rats, with the goal of identifying behaviors, genes, and neural circuits from skin to brain that shape their extremely social lifestyle.

Artwork by Darneice Creates

Quantitative pain scales

To separate the sensory and emotional components of pain, we use fast video-imaging, computation, and mathematics.  We couple machine-learning based tracking with custom software and hardware  for quantitative mouse “pain scales”.  We are currently using these tools to determine how the brain simultaneously generates both the sensation and emotional affect of pain.