Time, Space and Dopamine
Joshua Berke, PhD
Professor, Neurology
UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences
University of California, San Francisco
The Berke Lab investigates how mammalian neural circuits achieve critical psychological functions, including decision-making and learning. The lab has a particular focus on the basal ganglia — their dynamics in normal awake, behaving animals and in pathological conditions such as drug addiction, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and Tourette syndrome. The lab combines sophisticated behavioral tasks with state-of-the-art techniques, including electrophysiological recording of many individual neurons, real-time neurochemical measures and optogenetic manipulations. The lab is also actively involved in developing new technologies for systems neuroscience.