Understanding how the nervous system gives rise to perception, thought, memory, emotion, and action is one of biology’s greatest challenges. Meeting this challenge requires driving scientific breakthroughs that connect discoveries across genes, cells, circuits, and behavior.
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Neural Dynamics and Cognitive Functions
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Recent Discoveries
MPFI seeks to provide a new understanding of the origins, development, and function of the nervous system and its capacity to produce perception, thought, language, memory, emotion, and action.
Recent Papers
Complementary roles of cell-type-specific plasticity in shaping neocortical dynamics for learning action timing
Majumder, S., Hirokawa, K., Yang, Z., Jain, A., Paletzki, R., Gerfen, C. R., Fontolan, L., Romani, S., Yasuda, R., & Inagaki, H. K. (2026). Complementary roles of cell-type-specific plasticity in shaping neocortical dynamics for learning action timing. Nature Communications.
Activity-regulated circSamm50 modulates mitochondrial dynamics and spine structural plasticity
Chanda, K., Bapat, O., Wingfield, J. L., Avchalumov, Y., Kazantzis, M., Carter, J. P., Sharma, N., Davis, R., Yuan, J. X.-J., Rangaraju, V., & Puthanveettil, S. V. (2026). Activity-regulated circSamm50 modulates mitochondrial dynamics and spine structural plasticity. Cell Reports, 45(6).
Synchronous climbing fiber activity enables instructive signaling for cerebellar learning through modulation of disinhibitory circuits.
Park, C., Yang, Z., Nashef, A., Gim, J., Bahn, S., Kim, G. H., Zhang, K., Cathala, L., Hong, S., Im, Y., Lee, S.-H., Lee, K., Kim, M.-S., Arnold, D. B., Lee, K. J., Christie, J. M., & Kim, J. S. (2026). Synchronous climbing fiber activity enables instructive signaling for cerebellar learning through modulation of disinhibitory circuits. Nature Neuroscience.
argeting the cGAS-STING pathway mitigates Huntington disease pathogenesis in a knock-in mouse model.
Kesharwani, A., Dagar, S., Zuniga, I., Monet, M. C., Halade, G., Upadhyay, G., Nimrod Ramírez-Jarquín, U., Gisselle Lopez-Huerta, V., Mirza, E., Quan, N., & Subramaniam, S. (2026). Targeting the cGAS-STING pathway mitigates Huntington disease pathogenesis in a knock-in mouse model. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 123(24), e2535879123.
Functional imaging of nine distinct neuronal populations under a miniscope in freely behaving animals.
Phillips, M. L., Urban, N. T., Salemi, T., Dong, Z., & Yasuda, R. (2026). Functional imaging of nine distinct neuronal populations under a miniscope in freely behaving animals. eLife, 15, RP110277.
Central versus peripheral neural control of a coordinated walking pattern in Drosophila
Sapkal, N., Kumar, D. S., Sunke, S., Mancini, N., Pitchford, J., Murakami, K., & Bidaye, S. S. (2026). Central versus peripheral neural control of a coordinated walking pattern in Drosophila. (p. 2026.04.29.721658). bioRxiv.
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