Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Minghong Ma Lab

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Welcome!

Research Interests

We are interested in how the brain perceives and responds to sensory stimuli in health and disease. We employ the mouse as our model due to its experimentally accessible neural circuits and well-characterized behaviors. Rodents primarily use olfactory cues to guide their behaviors, e.g., locating food, communicating with conspecifics, and avoiding danger. Odor sensing starts with olfactory sensory neurons in the nose, which carry the information to the olfactory bulb and subsequently to several cortical and subcortical regions. In addition to detecting odors, olfactory sensory neurons also serve as mechanical sensors, thus the nose transmits both odor information and nasal breathing signal into the brain. The olfactory system is closely connected with other brain regions that are involved in cognition and emotion, which may underlie strong associations between smell deficits and neuropsychiatric disorders. Our current research focuses on: 1) network connections between the olfactory system and non-olfactory regions (e.g., the prefrontal cortex) and their functions; 2) mind-body interaction via reciprocal influence of respiration and behavioral/mental state; 3) role of sniffing in neural representation of sensory salience; 4) neural mechanisms underlying interbrain synchrony in socially engaged mice; and 5) olfactory function in diseased states.

Research Techniques
ex vivo and in vivo electrophysiology, fiber photometry, neural circuit tracing, optogenetics, chemogenetics, mouse behavior, immunohistochemistry, machine learning

Current Funding Supports

NIH (NIDCD, NIDA and NINDS)

Join Us!

We welcome inquiries and applications from students and postdocs. Please contact minghong@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.