I am a neuroscientist and electrophysiologist studying the thalamus from a systems neuroscience perspective. My research focuses on the midline thalamus, an area heavily interconnected with the limbic system and implicated in affective and motivated behavior. I aim to understand how neuronal activity in this region is driven and modulated by hippocampal and neocortical neuronal activity during sleep and waking behavior in mice.
I use large-scale electrophysiology to detect single spikes of individual thalamic neurons during unrestrained sleep-wave activity in mice. I combine optogenetics with the use of transgenic mice to identify and manipulate specific population of neurons within the dorsal midline thalamus. I use viral tracing methods and histological techniques to identify the anatomical substrates of my physiological findings.
I am a Marie Sklodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2024) finishing my postdoctoral research in László Acsády’s Thalamus Research Group at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Budapest, Hungary. As part of my Marie Sklodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship program, I worked with György Buzsáki at New York University, NY, USA between 2021-2023 where I learned to perform and analyze large scale multielectrode recordings in freely behaving mice.
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The brain can be examined at multiple levels of organization from molecules to behavior. My approach to studying the brain has primarily been focusing on the neuronal and network level of organization.
During my PhD in Gábor Tamás's lab at the University of Szeged (2006-2013) I studied the structural and functional properties of cortical microcircuits using in vitro whole cell patch clamp electrophysiology and correlated light- and electron microscopy both in rodent and human cortical slices. Using acute human cortical slices, I studied how the extracortical neurotransmitter serotonin modulates the synaptic communication between excitatory and inhibitory neurons.
For postdoctoral studies, I joined László Acsády’s Thalamus Research Group at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Budapest, Hungary to study the thalamus, a key brain region, which provides the most significant input to the neocortex. In László’s group, beside learning in vivo electrophysiology, optogenetics, viral tracing methods and immunohistological techniques I learned to appreciate the diversity of thalamic functions and the vast variety of thalamic connectivity to the brain.
For my second postdoctoral period, as part of my Marie Sklodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship program, I joined György Buzsáki’s research group at New York University, NY, USA where I learned to perform and analyze large scale multielectrode recordings in freely behaving mice. In György’s group I worked with a highly motivated and highly qualified group of young scientists with all sorts of scientific background and expertise.