The Gozzi lab focuses on the study of the functional organization of the mammalian brain at the macroscale. Our ultimate goal is to understand how the brain works as an integrated network, both in healthy and in pathological states.
Key objectives of our research are to understand (a) how brain regions dynamically communicate with each other (b) how this large-scale communication, often referred to as “functional connectivity”, emerges out of the fixed anatomical structure of the brain and (c) how brainwide patterns of activity respond to both internal (i.e. neuromodulatory transmission) and external (i.e. perturbations) input.
To achieve our goals, we've developed ways to study and influence how different brain regions reciprocally interact and communicate in the mouse brain. We want to understand how brain activity patterns, measured using techniques like fMRI (and more recently functional ultrasound imaging), relate to their underlying physiological determinants. To do this, we use various advanced neuroscience techniques such as optogenetics, chemogenetics, calcium imaging and large-scale electrophysiology in mice. We then combine these experiments with computational models to explore how each factor affects overall brain activity.
As part of this research we have uncovered a set of principles that govern interareal communication in the mammalian brain, and how disruptions in this communications relates to conditions like autism or schizophrenia.
Most of our research has been funded by the European Research Council (ERC StG, Disconn; ERC CoG Brainamics).