The Gozzi lab focuses on the study of the functional organization of the mammalian brain at the macroscale. We are interested in mapping and decoding large-scale patterns of spontaneous brain activity across species. A major goal of our research is to unravel the neurophysiological basis of brain-wide functional connectivity as measured with fMRI, and the underpinnings of its disruption in developmental disorders like autism.

To achieve these goals, as part of the ERC-funded project #Disconn, we have developed methods to map and perturb the functional connectome in the awake mouse brain, with the aim to establish causal relationship between macroscale fMRI activity and its genetic, neurophysiological and pathological determinants. Our work is revealing a set of fundamental rules linking regional patterns of brain activity to macroscale functional connectivity, and the significance of their disruption in brain disorders.

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By IIT