Hypothalamic control of mood

Presented by

Huizhong W. Tao, PhD

Professor of Physiology & Neuroscience

About Huizhong W. Tao, PhD

Huizhong Whit Tao, PhD is Professor of Physiology & Neuroscience at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She received her B.S. in Biochemistry from Peking University (1995), conducted graduate research at Columbia University, and earned her Ph.D. in Neurobiology from University of California at San Diego in 2000. She completed her postdoctoral training at University of California at Berkeley with Professor Muming Poo before joining USC in 2004.

Tao started her independent laboratory in USC in 2008. Tao’s laboratory investigates the neural circuitry mechanisms underlying sensory processing and visually guided behaviors. Her group integrates state-of-the-art in vivo electrophysiology, miniscope calcium imaging, viral tracing, and optogenetic/chemogenetic tools to dissect local and long-range synaptic circuits in cortical and subcortical structures. In recent years, her research has focused on subcortical visual pathways, including the superior colliculus, parabigeminal nucleus, and higher-order thalamic nuclei, and their roles in visuospatial processing, sensory-motor transformation. Recently, her group has also applied these neuroscience tools to study circuit abnormalities and neuropsychiatric impairments. Her research program has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health, with current R01 projects from the National Eye Institute and the National Institute on Aging. Over the past two decades, Tao has made influential contributions to the understanding of cortical development, sensory integration, and circuit-level mechanisms of perception and behavior.