Joe Paton
Fellow
Research Interests
The film director Elia Kazan once said that directing is “turning psychology into behavior”. Your brain is charged with the same task every moment you are awake. Aside from reflexes, actions are almost always, at least initially, directed in nature. Disease states such as Parkinson’s disease, where voluntary action is inhibited, and obsessive compulsive disorder and drug addiction, where actions cannot be terminated, highlight the importance of proper direction of action for normal functioning. The core of my laboratory’s research is to advance our understanding of the neural mechanisms by which the actions that make up adaptive behavior are learned and generated. Taking a cue from Mr. Kazan, we begin by developing well-controlled behavioral tasks for the investigation of specific sensori-motor circuits in the brain of awake-behaving rodent model systems. To best locate and characterize neural signals during behavior, we study the relatively well-described sensory and motor circuits associated with the whisker system. Currently, we are particularly interested in understanding how the neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) modulates neural functioning within the basal ganglia, an evolutionarily aged collection of structures historically thought of as being important for movement. In particular DA appears important for normal timing of behavioral responses. Thus, we have started by developing cognitive tasks in rodents in which animals must learn to time intervals. Our approach employs multi-site neurophysiological recordings, as well as theoretical, pharmacological, and molecular biological techniques.
Publications
Salzman C.D., Belova M.A., Paton J.J. (2005) Beetles, boxes and brain cells: neural mechanisms underlying valuation and learning. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol.15(6):721-9
Paton J.J.*, Belova M.A.*, Morrison S.E., and Salzman C.D. (2006). The primate amygdala represents the positive and negative value of visual stimuli during learning. Nature 439, 865-870.
Belova M.A.*, Paton J.J.*, Morrison S.E., and Salzman C.D. (2007) Expectation modulates neural responses to pleasant and aversive stimuli in primate amygdala. Neuron. 2007 Sep 20;55 (6):970-84.
Belova M.A.*, Paton J.J.*, Salzman C.D. Moment to moment tracking of state value in primate amygdala. (submitted)
* equal contribution