I am interested in understanding how the brain integrates external sensory cues with information about the animal’s internal physiological state to generate both adaptive behaviors and organ function. In particular, I am using the larval zebrafish as a model to study how neural dynamics operate at three levels on a brain to heart axis
1) the brain
2) the autonomic nervous system that connects the brain to the heart, and
3) the intracardiac ganglia of neurons that are embedded inside the heart.