Learning-related sensory responses in the cortex and basal ganglia

One foundation of learned behavior is the ability to associate arbitrary combinations of stimuli and actions. After learning these sensorimotor associations, the brain transforms previously meaningless stimulus information into a specific motor command, but it is unclear where this transformation occurs and how it develops across learning. We are investigating how the cortex-basal ganglia circuit is involved in this type of learning by recording widespread activity in mice during task learning and performance. Our findings are building towards a cascade of events during learning, where sensory responses are increased in the basal ganglia, converge according to behavioral relevance, and routed to motor regions of the cortex.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

2010-2016: PhD – University of California, San Diego with Takaki Komiyama, studied learning in the motor cortex
2016-2022: Postdoc – UCL with Matteo Carandini and Kenneth Harris, studied interactions between the cortex and striatum
2022: Sir Henry Dale Fellowship – Oxford

Neural mechanisms of behavioural flexibility across threat and reward

Behavioural flexibility, the capacity to adjust actions to changing environmental demands and internal physiological states, is essential for survival. Across contexts of threat and reward, animals rely on distributed brain circuits that dynamically reconfigure behavioural strategies to maintain adaptive control. Using cell-type-specific circuit approaches in freely moving mice, our work reveals how subtle variations in contextual and internal variables reshape strategy selection—from defensive to exploratory modes of behaviour. These studies uncover distinct yet conceptually aligned mechanisms that enable adaptive switching between behavioural states, illustrating how the brain integrates environmental information and physiological needs to guide flexible, goal-directed action. Understanding these principles offers insight into neuropsychiatric conditions in which behavioural flexibility is disrupted, whether through excessive rigidity, as in obsessive-compulsive and anxiety disorders, or excessive instability, as in attention deficit and mood disorders.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

After his studies in electric engineering, Mehran did his PhD in neurobiology of visual system in Alexander Heimel’s lab at Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN), where he found orientation columns and optic flow map in superior colliculus, and thalamocortical ocular dominance plasticity in mice. During his postdoc at NIN, he found a cell-type-specific neural mechanism for curiosity and information seeking. He continued his work on behavioural flexibility in Sonja Hofer’s lab at SWC/UCL, where he found a cell-type-specific neural mechanisms that controls switch and stay behavioural strategies. He started his lab (NeuroBehaviour Lab) at DPAG in September 2025 to study neural mechanisms of adaptive behaviour.