Undergraduate research with Dr. Kay Tye

October 2023 - July 2024

Lab website: Tye LabDirect mentor: Christopher Lee, Ph.D.


Questions we aim to answer

  • While acute social isolation has shown to induce prosocial behaviors upon re-introduction to a social group, chronic social isolation tends to produce the opposite, antisocial or even aggressive behaviors, this leads us to wonder what is the exact time course of social isolation?
  • How do different timepoints of social isolation affect the representation of social stimuli in the medial prefrontal cortex?


What I did

  • Implemented optogenetic modulation in the medial prefrontal cortex of mice during social behavior
  • Carried out and analyzed sexual differences in behavior in the timescales of social isolation
  • Monitored localized neuronal activity and dopaminergic signaling in vivo
  • Extracted features of pose estimation during social interaction for the development of an unsupervised machine learning modeling
  • Developed a supervised machine learning model to characterize phenotypic behaviors in mice when given a novel recording


Skills I developed

  • Use of deep learning multi-pose animal tracking (SLEAP)
  • Immunohistochemistry and brain slicing
  • Estrous swabbing
  • Social rank and other behavioral testing
  • Virus injection and fiber photometry implants in the mouse cortex


Defining moments

  • Working in a BIG lab after a summer in a really small one provided me with insight on how labs can sometimes work like a machine, the best results come from thoughtful planning and design, as well as extensive communication
  • Writing my first research proposal at the Tye Lab gave me the building blocks that I use today to stop and carefully think on what are the current gaps in research and how can I build a plan to address them
  • I performed my first surgery and familiarized myself with multidisciplinary approaches like optogenetics and performing in vivo electrophysiology, techniques that I now take into account when reflecting on how to develop a research plan