Ilana Witten Position Professor Role PNI Title Ph.D., Stanford University, 2008 Office Phone 609-258-8143 Email [email protected] Assistant Shaifali Patel Office 154 PNI Bio/Description Research FocusNeural circuits for reward learning and decision makingThe drive to seek rewards – for example, food, water, or social interactions – shape most of our behaviors. How do animals learn which actions will lead to reward? How do rewards shape decisions? How is the underlying circuitry altered in disease states? Decades of experimental and theoretical work have led to several influential hypotheses about how the striatum – a major hub in the reward circuit – mediates these functions. However, due to technical limitations, it has been difficult to test these ideas rigorously. By integrating a wide range of technical approaches – optogenetics, rodent behavior, electrophysiology, imaging, and computational modeling – our lab is providing new insights into the circuit level mechanisms underlying these fundamental processes.Related LinksWitten LabPublications Related News How the brain remembers what gave you food poisoning Brain Region Critical for Coping with Chronic Stress Identified in Mice Princeton-Rutgers Collaboration Awarded $16M Research Grant to Advance Understanding of Mental Illness Mice Navigating a Virtual Maze Unveils New Understanding of the Brain, Dopamine, and AI Witten named HHMI Investigator Shared Representations of Food and Social Stimuli in Mouse Dopamine Neurons Department/Program Princeton Neuroscience Institute Research Area Systems & Circuits