A. David Redish
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A. David Redish, Ph.D. Professor Email: redish AT umn.edu Address: 6-145 Jackson Hall / Phone: (612) 626-3738 Office: MCB 4-142 |
Studying the dynamics of brains and behavior
My lab has two main research
objectives. The first is to further our understanding of how multiple learning and
memory systems interact to produce behavior. The second is to apply the
theories that arise from the neurophysiology and computational modeling to
explain dysfunctional and broken behavioral-control systems, as occurs in
addiction. To meet these objectives, the lab combines multi-electrode neural
ensemble recordings from awake, behaving animals with complex computational
analysis techniques that enable measurement of neural dynamics at very fast
time scales (e.g. msec). The lab also builds computational models
at all scales (single-neuron compartmental models to large-scale systemic
models to abstract algorithmic models) to connect the multiple levels of
neurophysiology and behavior. Modern
neuroscience sees the brain as an information-processing device. Understanding
how the brain processes information requires understanding the representations
used by the network of neurons that compose the brain. However, representations
in the brain are distributed: each cell carries only a small portion of the total
information. I am interested in questions of how neural structures work
together to create systems able to accomplish behavioral tasks.
More specifically, we have
ongoing projects in
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the dynamics of
neural ensemble activity in multiple systems (hippocampus, dorsal, ventral
striatum, orbitofrontal cortex) during learning,
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the interaction
between multiple learning systems (such as hippocampus and striatum) in the
ability to accomplish complex tasks,
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computational
models of addiction and other disorders.