Research

Our research focuses on how neurons and neural networks process information and how that processing impacts pain perception. We are especially interested in deciphering how pathological changes in neural information processing lead to chronic pain. This research is motivated by the view that understanding how the processing of sensory information goes awry after nerve injury will help us understand and treat the resulting perceptual abnormalities (e.g. allodynia and hyperalgesia) associated with neuropathic pain.

Our approach is unique within the pain reseach field insofar as we combine experiments with computational simulations and analysis. The pain system has somehow escaped rigorous computational investigation despite the widespread application of computational neuroscience in other sensory systems. We take computational tools and concepts from other fields and apply them to the pain system. That said, much of our work still focuses on fundamental principles of neural computation that are not specific to pain processing.

Our research program is organized around four themes: cellular excitability, synaptic inhibition, network coding, and biological constraints. Please explore the Publications tab to see a list of our publications.