Flexible Thinking
Michael Halassa’s research is focused on the neural basis of cognitive control and flexibility, particularly in attention and decision-making. At a party, for example, it may be possible to talk to one person, but selectively listen to a different conversation happening nearby. It is this ability to switch our attention with agility that Halassa studies in his lab.
He has developed behavioral models of cognitive function in mice, allowing him to probe the underlying neural circuits and computations using behaviorial analysis, electrophysiology, and genetics. His work has revealed a new role for the thalamus – once considered a simple relay station for sensory information – in initiating, sustaining and switching cognitive representations. He also studies how attention and cognitive flexibility are disrupted in disorders including schizophrenia, autism, and ADHD.
More Research
Halassa is a board-certified psychiatrist with fellowship training in psychotic disorders. Motivated by this clinical training, Halassa studies how the brain generates hypotheses about the world and how these hypotheses may be corrupted by disease processes. Halassa suggests that an inability to switch between different hypotheses may be at the root of schizophrenia and related disorders. For example, individuals with schizophrenia may make assumptions about the world that are highly improbable, and have difficulty updating such beliefs, even in the presence of concrete information. By developing perceptual tasks in animals that capture the underlying basic cognitive operations, the Halassa Lab aims to understand how the healthy brain generates such hypotheses and why the diseased brain has difficulty changing or revising them.
Biography
Michael Halassa joined the McGovern Institute for Brain Research as an associate investigator in 2017 and is currently the Class of 1958 Career Development Professor in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Originally from Jordan, Halassa received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, and was a postdoc in the laboratory of Matt Wilson at MIT, while also doing a residency in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. He joined the NYU faculty in 2014.
Honors and Awards
Allen Institute Next Generation Leader
Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise, 2017
Daniel X. Freedman Prize for Exceptional Research, 2015
