Karolina Farrell

University College London | UCL

In situ transcriptomic technologies provide a promising avenue to link gene expression, connectivity, and physiological properties of neural cell types. Commercialized methods that allow the detection of hundreds of genes in situ, however, are expensive and therefore typically used for generating unimodal reference data rather than for resource-int...

Goal-directed navigation requires learning to accurately estimate location and select optimal actions in each location. Midbrain dopamine neurons are involved in reward value learning and have been linked to reward location learning. They are therefore ideally placed to provide teaching signals for goal-directed navigation. By imaging dopamine neur...

Successful goal-directed navigation requires learning to accurately estimate location and select optimal actions in each location. Midbrain dopamine neurons are known to be involved in reward value learning, and have also been linked to reward location learning. Dopamine neurons are therefore ideally placed to provide teaching signals for goal-dire...

Real-time rendering of closed-loop visual environments is important for next-generation understanding of brain function and behaviour, but is often prohibitively difficult for non-experts to implement and is limited to few laboratories worldwide. We developed BonVision as an easy-to-use open-source software for the display of virtual or augmented r...

In naturalistic environments, animals navigate in order to harvest rewards. Successful goal-directed navigation requires learning to accurately estimate location and select optimal state-dependent actions. Midbrain dopamine neurons are known to be involved in reward value learning 1–13 . They have also been linked to reward location learning, as th...

Real-time rendering of closed-loop visual environments is necessary for next-generation understanding of brain function and behaviour, but is prohibitively difficult for non-experts to implement and is limited to few laboratories worldwide. We developed BonVision as an easy-to-use software for display of virtual or augmented reality as well as stan...

Deciding between stimuli requires combining their learned value with one's sensory confidence. We trained mice in a visual task that probes this combination. Mouse choices reflected not only present confidence and past rewards but also past confidence. Their behavior conformed to a model that combines signal detection with reinforcement learning. I...

Newborn mice emit signals that promote parenting from mothers and fathers but trigger aggressive responses from virgin males. Although pup-directed attacks by males require vomeronasal function, the specific infant cues that elicit this behavior are unknown. We developed a behavioral paradigm based on reconstituted pup cues and showed that discrete...