Alfred Kaye, PhD

Using systems neuroscience approaches, the Kaye Lab aims to link affective cognition to microcircuit mechanisms. Neuromodulators both gate neural plasticity across limbic circuits and also rapidly alter cognitive states. The research group is particularly interested in how innate and learned threats generate neuromodulatory and neuropeptidergic prediction error signals for future learning. They seek to define the interactions between cognitive and affective domains in neural circuits using reinforcement learning, computational behavior modeling, two-photon structural and functional imaging, microendoscope calcium imaging, and molecular biosensors for neurotransmitter release and second-messenger systems.

behavioral testing ;  calcium imaging ;  data sharing ;  electrophysiology ;  two-photon imaging ;  virtual reality  

circuits ;  computational neuroscience ;  plasticity ;  systems neuroscience  

Al Kaye obtained his BA from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2004 and his MD-PhD from the University of California, San Diego, in 2014. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship and clinical psychiatry training at Yale before starting a faculty position in 2020.