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Datta Lab

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The Basics

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  1. Neural Circuits for the Non-Scientist
  2. Seeing Smell: A Window into Neural Circuits and Behavior
  3. How the Nose Knows
  4. Brain Maps and the Outside World
  5. Dissecting Neural Wiring

We get asked all the time by non-scientists to explain what it is we do, and why we do it. While we often give a short answer — we work on characterizing the neural basis for innate behaviors — to those interested in a bit more detail we offer this general overview of the specific biological problems we are addressing, and what we hope to learn from our experiments. This summary is not by any means meant to be scientifically comprehensive, but hopefully conveys something useful about how we are thinking about the brain here in the lab

This illustration comes from Santiago Ramon y Cajal’s seminal Histology of the Nervous System, parts of which were first published in 1899. It shows olfactory sensory neurons in the nose (A) sending processes across the cribiriform plate and terminating on spherical structures called glomeruli (B) within the olfactory bulb of the brain. Neurons called mitral cells (C) innervate these glomeruli and send axonal projections to the higher brain (D) to enable olfactory perception and odor-driven behavior.

Sandeep Robert Datta, MD, Ph.D Department of Neurobiology Harvard Medical School