Introduction

Several psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety disorders and depression, have shown strong relationships with sleep disturbance and abnormal fear emotion. Emerging evidence suggests that sleep problems are not only a secondary symptom of psychiatric disorders but represent a predisposing, precipitating and perpetuating factor in their development. However, there remains a lack of research about uncovering causality or correlation with these behavioral phenotypes and unravelling the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms.

Our lab focuses on understanding the interaction of the neural circuits and peripheral systems underlying the relationship between sleep and innate fear in physiological and pathological conditions. We combine advanced experimental and analytical tools, enabling measurements of complex high-dimensional behavioural data and physiological parameters in a laboratory setting and accurate inference of defensive behaviours at the organismal level.