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NACS Research Day is a special event designed to bring the NACS community together to celebrate the outstanding research activities that take place in our interdisciplinary program. It is held in the spring semester. |
2025 Seed Grant Projects:Single-cell multi-omics in orbitofrontal striatal circuit underlying oxycodone relapse
Prescription opioids, such as oxycodone, are one of the main drivers of the ongoing opioid epidemic. A major challenge in treating opioid addiction is relapse, often triggered by drug-associated cues. The Li lab previously demonstrated a critical role of projections from orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to dorsal striatum (DS) in cue-induced oxycodone relapse in rats. However, the molecular mechanisms within this orbitofrontal striatal circuit underlying oxycodone relapse have not been investigated. In this proposal, we developed a new research initiative to leverage single-cell multi-omics technology (available at the BBI genomic core) and the computational framework (developed by the EI-Sayed lab) to investigate the transcriptomes and epigenomes in the orbitofrontal striatal circuit associated with oxycodone relapse. This line of research will bring our understanding of the transcriptomes and epigenome in oxycodone relapse to an entirely novel level, which will aid in the development of effective pharmacological treatment for the persistent vulnerability to relapse in opioid abstainers. In the presentation, I will review our current progress, highlighting both technical challenges and preliminary findings, and describe how these results will guide our future research proposals. Two Brains Are Better Than One: Hyperscanning Approaches to Understanding Live Social Interaction
Social interaction is a cornerstone of human development, yet the neural and cognitive mechanisms supporting real-time dyadic exchange remain poorly understood. Supported by two BBI grants (2023 & 2025), we report the findings and progress of two projects leveraging functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning to measure brain-to-brain neural synchrony during live interaction across the lifespan. In the first project, prefrontal cortex (PFC) synchrony was measured while 57 caregiver-child dyads (ages 2–6) completed increasingly difficult puzzles. We present preliminary findings on how stressor context shapes associations between caregiver-child neural and affective synchrony, and with children's emotion regulation. Interestingly, caregiver-child PFC synchrony was negatively correlated with children's emotion regulation across all stressor blocks — a surprising finding that raises new questions about what neural synchrony represents. We are currently applying machine learning approaches to identify data-driven states of neural synchrony that may further illuminate these dynamics. In the second (ongoing) project, we extend the hyperscanning design to adult dyads during naturalistic live interaction. Using competitive and cooperative versions of rock-paper-scissors, we will apply an adaptive mentalization model to estimate trial-by-trial belief updating and similarity, relating these to neural synchrony across frontal, temporal, and parietal regions. Additionally, a referential communication task further probes how partners converge on shared linguistic representations — or "common ground" — for abstract images, with a plan to characterize semantic distance between referents using NLP methods and relate these to neural similarity between partners. A subset of participants will also complete fMRI to validate and spatially constrain the fNIRS signal within cerebellar-temporal-prefrontal networks. Together, these projects advance a neurocognitive framework for understanding how brains align during real-world social interaction across development A customizable staircase waveguide for dynamic optical interrogation of cortical microcircuits
Optical tools have transformed neuroscience by enabling cell type–specific interrogation of circuit structure and function. These advances have been driven by engineered light-sensitive opsins for manipulating neuronal activity and by genetically encoded fluorescent biosensors for monitoring calcium dynamics and neurotransmitter/neuromodulator release. The ability to optically manipulate and monitor neuronal function has in turn spurred the development of optical hardware for delivering light to defined brain regions in vivo. Although numerous devices capable of spatially-resolved light delivery have been fabricated, no existing technology provides a simple solution to optically select, monitor, and manipulate distinct cortical layers in freely behaving animals. This limitation constrains mechanistic interrogation of cortical microcircuits and their contributions to behavior. Here we present a miniaturized total-internal-reflection “staircase” waveguide that enables customized, depth-adjustable, layer-resolved light delivery and signal collection. |
NACS Student Posters:
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