Social animals—including humans—must generate appropriate actions toward the other members of their group. Our laboratory addresses three key questions. (i) How do hippocampal neurons function when memories of conspecifics are formed and represented? (ii) What fails in autism spectrum disorders, where remembering others is impaired? (iii) How does the brain integrate and segregate information about self and others to support complex social emotions such as empathy and jealousy?

Using mice as a model, we combine optogenetics to manipulate neuronal activity with in vivo electrophysiological recording during behavior, in order to unravel the neural circuitry that underlies self–other cognition.