Dr Riccardo Beltramo

We dissect the neural circuits underlying visual processing and perception, spatial navigation, and cognitive control.

Our lab uses the hippocampal/parahippocampal formation and the visual system as a model, and focuses on the contribution of parallel visual pathways to behaviours that promote survival, so-called “adaptive behaviours”.

We are particularly interested in visually-driven innate and learned behaviours, and in spatial navigation. Visually-evoked innate responses, such as freezing or escaping upon detection of distant predators, critically reduce the probability of being eaten. Equally essential for survival is the ability to learn how to navigate in an ever-changing environment, creating neural “spatial maps” of the world based on visual landmarks and optic flow. We study the neural circuits that convert visual information into the spatial maps that guide vision-based navigation.

Adaptive behaviours are specific reactions that have been positively selected during evolution because they increase survival chances. However, many of these protective responses to the possible presence of danger are susceptible to dysregulation. Unregulated or “out of control” adaptive behaviours can become maladaptive and underlie severe mental illnesses, including anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. We study the pathogenesis of stress-induced anxiety behaviours in the early stages of sensory processing. We aim to understand how pathological changes in the early neural representations of “dangerous” and “safe” sensory stimuli influence the occurrence of anxiety disorders.

The lab combines chronic large-scale electrophysiological and two-photon imaging recordings with chemogenetic and optogenetic manipulations, using the mouse as a model system. We seek to understand how the evolution of parallel neural pathways has contributed to the spectacular development of the associative skills that characterize mammalian behaviour. By developing novel behavioural paradigms and precise tools to monitor drugs’ pharmacodynamic effects on the neural circuitry, we aim to provide new therapeutic targets for future pharmacological interventions.