Skip to main content

Alla Karpova wants to develop a mechanistic understanding of how the brain infers and uses environmental structure. Karpova and her team focus on how frontal cortical ensemble dynamics represent latent hierarchical structure that an animal discovers, and how these ensemble dynamics are flexibly adapted to accommodate new evidence or new structures by interacting networks and pathways spanning multiple brain regions. The team starts by developing carefully tailored behavioral frameworks and deploys a combination of advanced electrophysiological and optogenetic methods and innovative analysis techniques. In addition, they devote significant resources to the development of new tools and instrumentation for deciphering the neural circuit basis of complex behavior in rodents.