The Stujenske Lab
Our team provides a critical bridge between basic neuroscience research and clinical application. As both a neuroscientist and practicing psychiatrist, Dr. Joe Stujenske leads the laboratory in investigating how cognitive circuits regulate both behavioral and somatic responses in a changing environment. It remains unknown how individuals can be cognitively trained to adapatively suppress unwanted behaviors and somatic experiences and how these processes go wrong for those with psychiatric conditions. How are some individuals able to perform despite experiencing performance anxiety, while others are frozen with panic and unable to speak? The cognitive control mechanisms that regulate the confluence of internal state, behavior, and somatic reactivity are poorly understood, and it is the central aim of the lab to understand how top-down circuits regulate a variety of internal states. Dr. Stujenske’s principal focus has been on defensive states, which have relevance to anxiety disorders, PTSD, and OCD, but the lab’s interests are broad, extending to appetitive states, interoception, and behavioral choice selection, among other areas of inquiry.
The lab studies the structure and function of neural circuits, with a strong interest in the relationship between the functional properties of neuronal populations, their genetic and molecular profiles, and their spatial organization. The principal techniques employed by the lab are simultaneous behavioral and somatic monitoring, in vivo two photon calcium imaging, in vivo extracellular electrophysiology with silicon probes, and optogenetics.
The lab is a part of the Translational Neuroscience Program at the University of Pittsburgh.
Highlights
Our Research
We use a variety of tools to interrogate brain circuits that regulate internal brain states.
Our Techniques & Tools
We are dedicated to open science and sharing tools with the neuroscience community. Our tools page has links to software that we have developed and other open source tools that we utilize.
We are hiring!
The Stujenske Lab is dedicated to fostering an environment where individuals feel valued for their unique experiences and talents. Teamwork and collaboration are at the heart of our science.