Overview

Understanding how the brain works is one of the great challenges of the current century. Investigators in our School are focused on understanding the contribution of synapses, cells and circuits in the expression of behaviour. We apply molecular, electrophysiological, imaging and behaviour approaches to study fluctuating brain activity  -  neural dynamics – and longer-term alterations in the nervous system – plasticity.

Research under this theme includes:

• molecular and cellular mechanisms of plasticity and how they relate to learning and memory.
• interactions between networks or circuits of neurons that underlie perceptual and behavioural responses.
• control of movement, emotion and behaviour.
• mechanisms and functions of sleep and circadian rhythms.
• neuroscience of mental health and mechanisms of neuropsychiatric risk.
• autonomic control of respiratory and cardiac function.

Neuroscience is inherently interdisciplinary and we collaborate closely with psychologists, biochemists, computer scientists, engineers, and clinicians under the umbrella of Bristol Neuroscience.