Neural circuits

From Development to Function

The human brain is incredibly complex and its estimated that the number of connections between neurons in your brain is greater than the Milky Way galaxy has stars! Despite this complexity, the brain is wired into stereotyped neural circuits, which underlie sensation, information processing, movement, and even consciousness. Disruption of wiring during development has been linked to many neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, epilepsy, and scizophrenia.

Projects in the Miller lab seek to understand how the brain forms function neural circuits . We use genetics and molecular biology to understand the components of synapses. We use cell biology and microscopy to understand what the components are doing in neurons. We use calcium imaging and behavior to understand how the synapses create neural network function and action. Ultimate, we hope to understand the generative rules that are used across time and space to create the complexity that is the brain.

We use zebrafish as a relatively simple model system because it provides the best of all worlds in terms of accessibility in interrogating neural circuit wiring. We use the system to examine fundamental questions in neural circuit wiring, we hope to glean insight into how these basic mechanisms go awry in neurodevelomental disorders, and we aim to apply the principles to re-wire circuits in models of neurodevelopmental disease or after injury.