The Sharpe Lab is a research group committed to understanding the cognitive models of our environment based on past experiences. We hope to understand how the brain learns (and forms memories) about information so we can understand when this goes wrong in psychopathology.
Our research explores how we can build cognitive models from learned associations across various brain regions, with a focus on the central role of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in driving learning through dopamine signalling, and the lateral hypothalamus in storing learned associations.
We investigate how disruptions in these processes contribute to disorders like schizophrenia, addiction, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), aiming to develop targeted therapies to enhance patient outcomes.
Cognitive models are built from many different types of learnt associations that are stored in different neuronal populations throughout the brain. Which type of memory that is encoded or recalled is dependent on a complex interplay of factors driven by interactions at the circuit level. Disruptions in this process can contribute to a broad range of psychological disorders including schizophrenia, addiction, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
We study the nature of these cognitive deficits and how a disruption of particular neural circuits may produce them. Our hope is that if we can understand how learning is disrupted in these disorders, it will provide the impetus to develop novel therapeutic compounds targeting the neural circuits we know are important for these aspects of learning, to reduce symptoms and improve quality of life in patients.
The lab is interested in how different neuronal circuits integrate information to regulate the development of cognitive models. In particular,
We primarily use complex behavioural tasks designed within Med Associates systems. We combine these sophisticated behavioural designs afforded by these systems with a modern suite of neuroscience tools including:
This affords recording and manipulation of neural circuits during behavioral tasks with a temporal precision that allows us to ask very specific questions about how the brain learns.
We have a range of people with differential expertise at different career stages that are working together to understand the brain. This allows us to conduct research across a number of different techniques with differing perspectives.
Dr Melissa Sharpe, Research Head
We are accepting graduate students and are always open to postdocs applying to join our team. If you’re interested in working within our team, contact Mel at melissa.sharpe@sydney.edu.au with a brief description of your background, expertise, and research interests in the context of our umbrella of research.
Image on this page courtesy of Thijs Dhollander.
