The Naumann Lab, in the Department of Neurobiology at Duke University, is interested in how neural circuits across the entire brain guide behavior and how individuality manifests within these circuits. Our goal is to understand how precisely the neural circuits underlying sensory systems of individuals form, develop, and function. To dissect such circuits, we use the genetically accessible and translucent zebrafish to map, monitor, and manipulate neuronal activity. By combining whole-brain imaging, behavioral monitoring, functional perturbations, neuroanatomy, computational modeling, and machine learning, we aim to generate brain-scale circuit models of simple behaviors in individual brains.
The time is ripe to study the neurobiology of each individual
Optomotor response idiosyncrasy
Neural circuit models that motivate specific connectivity based on average data may lead to over-interpretations in which best-fit models do not represent real neural implementations in individual animals. We are interested in how visually evoked behavioral idiosyncrasies manifest in underlying neural circuit architectures.
Moving gratings under our custom-built two-photon microscope
Our custom-built light-sheet microscope
Motivational states
Motivational states, such as arousal, sleep, fear, and hunger, affect stimulus sensitivity and influence behavior. We aim to reveal how neuromodulators can flexibly alter activity in well-defined neural circuits to affect behavior and behavioral idiosyncrasy.
Denoised two-photon recording of zebrafish neurons expressing GCaMP6s
Brain-body interactions
Interoceptive signals are increasingly recognized to impact behavior. We aim to dissect the molecular and functional mechanisms of brain-body communication, specifically the gut-brain axis.
Lifetime
With longitudinal assays of behavior and neural activity, we plan to build a better understanding of how genotype and environment interact to shape neural circuits and behavior.
Gigapixel imaging with a multi-camera array microscope (MCAM)