John H Freeman
University of Iowa, IA·Neuroscience
The cerebellum, at the back of the brain, is best known for coordinating movement. It also contributes to thinking, emotion, and social behavior, likely by communicating with forebrain regions that handle memory and decision-making.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Psychology
- Topics
cerebellum
anterior cingulate cortex
hippocampus
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Feb 2031
What they work on
- Record spikes and local field potentials with multiple tetrodes in the anterior cingulate cortex, dorsal hippocampus, and cerebellum of rats during trace conditioning, to test whether these regions interact in both directions throughout learning.
- Use optogenetics to manipulate cerebellar output during training trials while recording anterior cingulate and hippocampal activity, testing whether cerebellar signals to these forebrain areas help trace conditioning.
- Silence or alter cerebellar output with optogenetics just after each training trial, to test whether post-trial cerebellar feedback boosts forebrain responses to the training cue on later trials.
- Determine how sensory start-cue information reaches the cerebellum and combines with frontal input to drive cue- and interval-specific ramping of cerebellar output, using optogenetics and electrophysiology in rats performing a dual-interval timing task.
- Test whether tonic and ramping signals from the medial frontal cortex, relayed through the pontine nucleus, raise cerebellar firing and sharpen the precision of its ramping activity during interval timing.
More about the research
How these conversations work is poorly understood. That gap matters because altered cerebellar activity is linked to cognitive problems in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, stroke, and other neurological conditions. The research uses rats to trace the two-way traffic between the cerebellum and the forebrain during learning and timing tasks. It records the activity of many neurons at once and switches specific pathways on or off with light.
Why it matters
Learning, memory, and attention problems in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, stroke, and other neurological disorders may involve faulty communication between the cerebellum and frontal brain regions. Clarifying these circuits could lay groundwork for translational research on these cognitive symptoms. It could also inform possible treatments, such as stimulating cerebellar output to the forebrain to support memory.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
James Heys
University of Utah, UT·Neuroscience·Early-career
Test whether axons (nerve fibers) from the anterior cingulate cortex that end in the medial entorhinal cortex carry a clock-like signal of elapsed time, using large-scale optical imaging in mice performing virtual-reality timing tasks.
Jing Wang
New York University, NY·Neuroscience
Map how pain signals change the flow of information among the somatosensory, anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortex in rats, and test whether real-time, light-based disruption of S1 changes pain behavior.
Joshua I Gold
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Neuroscience
Develop and test a mathematical theory of adaptive decision bounds that update during deliberation, using behavioral experiments in humans and combined behavioral and neural studies in monkeys making decisions under changing conditions.
The school
University of Iowa: 32 labs on PI Pages, $703M a year on research, 418 research doctorates a year.
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