HRC Seminar: Matt McGinley

Matt McGinley, Baylor College of Medicine. Title: Pupil-indexed neuromodulation of brain state and cognition. Abstract: Moment-to-moment changes in the state of the brain powerfully influence cognitive processes such as perception and decision-making. For example, during a research seminar we may attend closely to the speaker, drift nearly to sleep, and then arouse rapidly and flee the room following a fire alarm. Failure to notice the same alarm during deep sleep could have tragic consequences. The McGinley lab seeks to understand how these shifts in internal brain states – such as arousal and attention – shape our perception and actions. Brain state is powerfully controlled by release throughout the brain of neuromodulatory transmitters such as acetylcholine and norepinephrine. In addition to controlling brain state, these modulatory systems exert temporally precise control of the cerebral cortex to guide effective learning and decision-making. Our research aims to understand the natural cellular-, synaptic-, and circuit-level physiologic mechanisms by which neuromodulation of the cortex shapes cognition. We use the pupil as a proxy for neuromodulatory brain state. We train mice in psychometric value-based decision-making tasks. To dissect these brain circuits, we conduct two-photon imaging, optogenetics, whole-cell recording, extracellular recording, and pharmacology—all during behavior. We also seek to develop closed-loop electrical interventions to treat related disorders, using novel biosensors and brain stimulation devices.