Understanding how the brain processes emotional stimuli is one of the major challenges of modern neuroscience. Emotion expression is thought as a window into the internal affective state of an individual across species from insect to humans. Importantly, emotional processing is an essential domain affected in mood disorders. However, clear-cut definition of emotions suitable across species are still debated, as well as basic readout of behavioral analysis in animal models.
Importantly, dysfunctions in the emotional circuits could be implicated not only in depression but also in many psychiatric illnesses, including anxiety, and bipolar or compulsive disorders.
Our group aim to study neural circuits of emotions using a multiscale and cross-species approach, fundamental to understand how emotions arise and are regulated in the brain.
