research
Our lab aims to understand how the brain maps the surrounding world, which can facilitate informed decision-making. To address these questions, we take a highly interdisciplinary approach that involves behavioral training, in vivo electrophysiology, the use of neural perturbation techniques, and neural data analysis. Broadly, we are pursuing three interconnected research directions,
Investigating task-relevant cognitive map formation
Imagine you have undertaken the impossible task of choosing the perfect restaurant for date night. To achieve this, you need a map of the highly rated restaurants in the city – not just a spatial map of where each restaurant is located, but also the information about the quality of food, service, cost etc. Animals in the wild also face similar challenges: a monkey choosing where to forage must know not only where trees are located, but also which fruits they bear and when. In our lab, we are studying how such varied information about location, reward, and costs is ‘bound’ in the brain in order to form a detailed map of the environment. We aim to identify how diverse environmental features are integrated into coherent representations that support intelligent behavior.
Studying spatial decisions
So, you have a detailed map of restaurants – now how do you use it to choose the perfect one? How does the brain juggle between costs and benefits? These decisions are unique because all the relevant information is usually beyond one’s sensory perception, and hence need to be based on internal maps. In fact, some of the properties, like ‘distance’, are not even fixed and need to be estimated based on the starting location. In the lab, we emulate this scenario by offering subjects (Long-Evans rats) a choice between various rewards located in different parts of the environment. Using simultaneous neural recordings from multiple brain areas, paired with targeted perturbations, we aim to uncover the neural mechanisms by which the brain estimates the relevant parameters, weighs various costs and benefits, and ultimately selects a target location.
Interplay between spatial maps
One of the hallmarks of intelligence is our ability to flexibly navigate through an ever-changing world. It is thought that this cognitive feat is enabled by the brain’s ability to map the surrounding environment – a series of discoveries that has been honored with a Nobel prize. However, there seems to be not one (hippocampus), or two (entorhinal cortex), but more spatial maps across the brain – each with its distinct flavor. We previously identified spatial representations in the orbitofrontal cortex that form a map of the future goal location (Basu et al., 2021, 2025). This raises some fundamental questions – what is the interplay between these different maps across the brain? What unique computations does each contribute? And most importantly, how do they coordinate to enable navigation in complex environments? In this ambitious project, we aim to answer these questions by studying flexible navigation in task arenas where the goals, starting locations, and possible routes are all changed flexibly.