Hyojung Seo, PhD

Overarching goal of our research is to understand how the brain generates intelligent behavior via complex neural networks, across cognitive, motivational and social domains. Unprecedented advances in neurotechnology, genetic engineering and artificial intelligence over the last decade have significantly changed traditional ways of linking neurophysiological observations to behavioral phenomena. Meeting new challenges, we aim to address how the characteristic spatiotemporal patterns of neural activity required for distinctive functions are produced by collective and interactive neural dynamics across cortical and subcortical networks. Methodologically, we combine theoretical analysis of possible algorithms/solutions the brain might use to solve problems in specific domains, with multi-level analyses of neural activity recorded from large scale networks and selective circuit manipulation. We explore the state-of-the-art high density neural probes, mathematical methods for dynamic state-space and network analysis of neural data, and genetic methods to express chemo- and optogenetic tools in specific neuron population, hoping to ultimately understand brain mechanisms underlying human intelligence and its disruption in psychiatric illnesses.

animal models ;  behavioral testing ;  chemogenetics ;  computational modeling ;  electrophysiology ;  network analysis  

cognition ;  decision-making ;  motivation ;  prefrontal cortex ;  systems neuroscience ;  working memory  

Hyojung Seo received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in psychology from Seoul National University, Korea, and Doctorate degree in behavioral neuroscience from Seoul National University. She started her laboratory in 2016 at Yale University.