Brain-Wide Coordination of Neural Dynamics

Neural oscillations and traveling waves are increasingly recognized as active mechanisms of neural coding, not mere byproducts, yet their causal role in sensorimotor processing still lacks direct behavioral evidence. Our discovery of brain-wide rotating waves (Science, 2026) opens a new path. Building on it, my lab pursues three directions:

• Recording brain-wide sensorimotor dynamics with multi-probe electrophysiology

• Decoding the functional logic of rotating waves

• Manipulating neural dynamics through neuromodulatory gating

We study the mouse brain with state-of-the-art tools, including whole-brain calcium imaging, high-density extracellular recording probes, and complex cognitive behavioral tasks.

Cortex-Wide Neural Dynamics During Rest and Behavior

Neural activity across different brain regions often reflects the activation of various body parts during active behavior or memory replay during rest states. Population-level neural activity frequently exhibits dynamic patterns, such as wave-like phenomena reminiscent of eddies and turbulent flow in water or atmospheric systems. These intricate brain dynamics are effectively captured by widefield calcium imaging.

By integrating insights across different modalities of population neuronal activity, we can identify the underlying rules and principles governing the spatial and temporal propagation of these wave dynamics. Furthermore, investigating cortex-wide dynamics during decision-making tasks provides valuable insights into their functional roles in cognition and behavior.

Single-Neuron Activity and Population Neural Dynamics

Neuronal activity from subcortical brain regions, such as thalamus, midbrain and neuromodulatory systems, plays a critical role in shaping cortex-wide dynamics. To investigate the relationship between single-neuron activity and population dynamics, we use high-density silicon probes to record neural activity from hundreds of neurons simultaneously, while monitoring cortex-wide neural dynamics with widefield imaging.

Neuropixels Ultra/HD probes that I and my collaborators developed, are well-suited for densely sampling single-neuron activity within a specified brain region. By combining these recordings with optogenetic techniques, we can isolate the contributions of specific cells types that coordinate and modulate cortex-wide neural dynamics.