Behavior is the measurable output of brain activity, revealing how an animal interacts with the world. Behaviors are constrained by evolutionary pressures and give us clues to the algorithms employed by the nervous system. New computational techniques increase our ability to record and analyze behaviors, giving us insights into what matters for the animal. NRI researches use a number of different model organisms and behavioral paradigms to decipher the logic driving the brain.

Researchers

Professor
Dr. Gazzaniga conducts research on how the brain enables mind.
Assistant Professor
The overarching goal of my research is to better understand how the mammalian neocortex processes and stores incoming sensory information.
Professor
The goal of our lab is to build useful gadgets. Current projects include multi-electrode probes for neuron cell cultures and multi-sensor biofeedback devices to help people overcome chronic pain.
Assistant Professor
Uses human brain imaging techniques (fMRI) and endocrinology to determine the impact of sex steroid hormones on brain morphology and function.
Assistant Professor
Neural circuit dynamics and behavior; navigation in a visual environment; neural mechanisms of object selection and decision-making.
Associate Professor
Neuroscience and Behavior.
Associate Professor
Combining theory and experimentation to understand how navigational decisions come about in terms of neural-circuit computation.
Duggan Professor and Distinguished Professor
Decoding the receptors and channels required for animal behavior in Drosophila and the mosquito, Aedes aegypti.
Assistant Professor
I work in Neurohumanities and Neuroliterary criticism.
Professor
Molecular and genetic analysis of development, stem cell biology, apoptosis, and behavior in the nematode C. elegans.
Professor
Research on human cognition explores topics that intersect philosophy and psychology.
Associate Professor
Systems neuroscience, neuroethology, and genetics, applied to dissecting the neural circuits that control a flexible motor sequence of grooming in fruit flies.
Co-Director, UCSB Brain Initiative
Associate Professor
Neuroengineering multiphoton imaging systems. Studying how neurons and their networks compute. Mouse visual system, behavior, large scale networks with subcellular resolution.
Assistant Professor
Information processing by neural circuitry with a special focus on the role of active dendrites in nonlinear modes of synaptic integration.
Professor
We research in two primary areas: (1) the mechanisms of neural tube closure in Xenopus and Ciona; (2) and behavior and neural circuity in Ciona.
Professor
Dr. Szumlinski's research focuses on the neuropsychopharmacology of substance use and related disorders.
Professor
Attention disorders and media-multitasking, moral judgment and conflict in narratives, media violence and aggression, persuasion neuroscience, cognitive control and flow experiences.
Professor
An evolutionary biologist who uses genomic and epigenomic approaches.