We study the biological basis of learning and decision-making by monitoring, manipulating, and modeling neural activity
How do we remember something good and pursue it? How do we remember something bad and avoid it?
How do we make decisions and commit actions in complicated situations (e.g., things are uncertain)?
What are the computational causes and consequences of brain disorders?
What can we learn about how the brain works from artificial intelligence?
We address these questions by monitoring and manipulating neuronal activities in rodents🐁, NHPs🐵, and artificial neural network agents💻. We use molecular, electrophysiological, and computational methods to understand how neural activity underlies cognition and behavior.
If we figure out the essence of the brain, we can understand ourselves better - the origin of consciousness and intelligence. It will also contribute to developing treatments for mental illnesses such as addiction. Furthermore, we may apply the neural mechanisms of intelligent behaviors to improve artificial intelligence technologies.
Recent news
Mar, 2025 - We were awarded a basic research grant entitled “Development of brain-inspired reinforcement learning based on dopamine diversity(다중 도파민 신호를 이용한 뇌기반 강화학습 알고리즘 개발)”!
Feb 14, 2025 - Nawoon was awarded in the Korean Society For Cognitive and Biological Psychology conference “An active avoidance task in augmented reality to investigate responses to visual fear memory”. Congratulations!
Jan 31, 2025 - Lumi, undergraduate RA in the lab, was admitted to Neurobiology Ph.D. program at Duke University. Congratulations!
Oct 7, 2024 - Mijoo gave a talk “A derivative-like dopaminergic computation across valences” in Nanosymposium at Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2024. Great job!
Topics related to what we do in the lab.
Lab introduction video (Korean ver.)
