CIN Faculty

Kevin Bender, PhD

Neuronal integration in health and disease
Neurology

Joshua Berke, PhD

Neural circuits for motivation and choice
Neurology

Josh Berke's laboratory at UCSF investigates brain mechanisms involved in learning, motivation and decision-making, and how these mechanisms go awry in disorders such as drug addiction, Parkinson's Disease and Huntington's Disease. (see www.berkelab.org). He is also Director of the Alcohol and Addiction Research Group, and holds the Rudi Schmid Distinguished Professorship in Neurology.

Michael Brainard, PhD

Neural, genetic systems of motor skill learning
Physiology

Edward Chang, MD

Speech and language mechanisms
Neurological Surgery

Dr. Edward Chang is a neurosurgeon who treats patients with epilepsy, brain tumors, and cranial nerve nerve compression syndromes such as trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm. He is Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at UCSF.

Dr Chang specializes in advanced brain mapping methods to preserve crucial areas for speech and motor functions in the brain. He also has extensive experience with implantable devices that stimulate specific nerves to relieve seizure, movement, pain and other disorders.

Felice Dunn, PhD

Function and dysfunction of visual circuits
Ophthalmology

Evan Feinberg, PhD

Sensorimotor integration
Anatomy

My lab (www.evanfeinberglab.com) aims to understand how sensory input is represented in the brain and transformed into behavioral commands. We study this problem in the superior colliculus (SC), a structure comprising functionally diverse sensory and motor neurons interleaved with fibers from myriad cortical and subcortical areas. This remarkable neuroanatomy poises the SC as an integrative hub, but has also hindered efforts to dissect SC circuitry using classical methods, such as lesions, that offer poor spatial and temporal resolution.

Loren Frank, PhD

Learning, memory and decisions
Physiology

Research Overview

Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD

Attention, technology, cognitive enhancement
Neurology

Dr. Adam Gazzaley obtained an M.D. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, completed Neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience at University of California, Berkeley. He is currently the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco and the Founder & Executive Director of Neuroscape, a translational neuroscience center at UCSF engaged in technology creation and scientific research.

Walter Gonzalez, PhD

Distributed brain computation controlling motor behaviors
Physiology

Andrea Hasenstaub, PhD

Auditory cortex
Otolaryngology

Andrea Hasenstaub, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Coleman Memorial Laboratories in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (OHNS) at the University of California, San Francisco. She received her BS in Mathematics and Engineering at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California; a M.Phil. in Biological Anthropology from Cambridge University, England; and a PhD in Neurobiology at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, followed by a fellowship at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California.

Vijay Mohan K Namboodiri, PhD

Neural circuits for associative learning and decision-making
Neurology

Saul Kato, PhD

Foundations of cognition
Neurology

How does the brain produce flexible and effective behavior?

Our lab develops and applies computational, cutting-edge engineering, and experimental approaches to basic and applied neuroscience and build theories of brain function. We also collaborate with other labs to apply our tools to probe brain dysfunction and disease.

Mazen Kheirbek, PhD

Emotional circuits
Psychiatry

ChrIstoph Kirst, PhD, MS, BS

Computational systems neuroscience
Anatomy

Devanand Manoli, MD, PhD

Asst Professor In Residence Psychiatry
Psychiatry

Alexandra Nelson, MD, PhD

Motor systems physiology
Neurology

Dr. Alexandra Nelson is a neurologist who cares for patients with disorders that affect both movement and cognition, such as Huntington's disease, spinocerebellar ataxia and atypical parkinsonism. She also works closely with her patients' families. She is a member of the clinical and research team at UCSF's Memory and Aging Center and Huntington's Disease Clinic, designated a center of excellence by the Huntington's Disease Society of America.

Massimo Scanziani, PhD

Function of cortical circuits
Physiology

Christoph Schreiner, MD, PhD

Central auditory stations
Otolaryngology

Christoph E. Schreiner, MD, PhD, is Professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (OHNS), and Bioengineering&Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his master degree and PhD degree, both in physics, from the University of Göttingen, Germany. Dr. Schreiner completed a medical degree from the University of Göttingen, and the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany, followed by a neuroscience research fellowship at UCSF.

Vikaas Sohal, MD, PhD

Prefrontal cortex and schizophrenia
Psychiatry

Dr. Sohal directs a neuroscience laboratory that investigates the brain circuits underlying fundamental aspects of cognition and emotion. His laboratory has made important discoveries about the role of rhythmic patterns of brain activity called gamma oscillations in normal cognition and schizophrenia, and about how other rhythmic patterns of brain activity encode changes in emotional states. Dr. Sohal is also a board-certified psychiatrist who supervises residents in the Early Psychosis (PATH) clinic.

Michael Stryker, PhD

Visual cortex
Physiology