David Marcus

Broadly speaking I am interested in the neurocircutry that underlies anxiety and stress disorders.  My project will be focusing on how projections from the basolateral amygdala, a subcortical brain region importantly involved emotional learning and motivation, are altered during stress and anxiety, and conversely, how activation of these circuits can drive anxiety like behavior.  To answer these questions, I will be utilizing state of the art optogenetic and viral tracing techniques.