Dr Alicia Izquierdo is working to understand how the brain learns from experience and adapts to change. By studying rats as they make decisions about rewards, costs and risks, her lab at UCLA is uncovering how circuits in the brain's frontal regions work together to guide behaviour. 

What enables the brain to imagine possibilities, weigh up options, and decide what to do next? In a recent SWC Seminar, Professor Loren Frank shared his research into the neural basis of cognitive flexibility – the brain’s amazing ability to adapt thoughts and behaviours in response to changing environments. In this Q&A, Professor Frank explains how his lab has developed naturalistic tasks in rats to reveal how the hippocampus represents not only where an animal is, but also where it could have been or might go next. He also explores the potential implications for understanding imagination and psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia.