Research line
Excitation-inhibition imbalance, the VPA model, and the circuit-level overlap between autism and epilepsy.
Our autism research uses the valproic acid (VPA) rat model to study how disrupted excitation-inhibition balance in the hippocampus contributes to the behavioral phenotypes associated with autism spectrum disorder. We've shown that dentate gyrus granule cells display altered excitability in this model, and our current work examines the role of NKCC1 in generating epileptic seizures within this autism model — reflecting the well-documented clinical overlap between autism and epilepsy, and situating this line at the intersection of our two other research areas.
Related work in the lab also studies metabotropic glutamate receptor signaling in sensory cortex using the FMR1 (Fragile X) model, extending our interest in excitation-inhibition balance to another genetically defined model of neurodevelopmental disorder.