Takashi Sato, PhD

My research interest is to understand the neural circuit mechanisms that control behavior under normal and disease conditions in mice. As a graduate student in the laboratory of Prof. Jeffrey Schall at Vanderbilt University, I investigated the neural mechanisms of sensory-motor information processing using primates, and identified key roles of the frontal cortex in converting sensory information into motor planning. For my postdoctoral training, I joined Prof. Karel Svoboda’s lab at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Janelia Research Campus, where I built my research upon novel imaging techniques that visualize the functions of neural circuits. I was the first to investigate the relationship between long-range axonal projections and neural activity using in vivo calcium imaging, and discovered specific information flow between sensory and motor areas. In 2010, I was recruited to the University of Tuebingen in Germany as a junior group leader, where I investigated cortical circuits that underlie voluntary movements in mice. Using novel behavioral paradigms and optical approaches, I discovered specific information flow between the sensory and motor areas of the cerebral cortex. In 2018, I moved to the Medical University of South Carolina as an assistant professor, where I initiated new lines of research on the circuit mechanisms underlying brain stimulation treatments for stroke, spinal cord injury, and Alzheimer’s disease.