CAN2018 Speaker profile: Rui Costa

Rui Costa poses for a portrait during conference at the HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) on Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011 in Ashburn, Va. (Kevin Wolf/AP Images for HHMI)
Rui Costa

Plenary speaker 1:
Rui M. Costa, DVM, PhD

Professor of Neuroscience and Neurology, Columbia University
Principal Investigator at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute

Rui Costa’s laboratory studies movement and decision-making.  Specifically they investigate the brain circuitry that underlies the generation of new actions, both spontaneously, and in response to stimuli.  By using genetic, electrophysiological, behavioral and optogenetic approaches, Rui Costa has identified the specific circuits and connections involved.

Dr. Costa’s laboratory also studies the control of action, both in normal individual, which present goal-oriented actions and habits, but also in individuals affected by compulsive or repetitive behavioral disorders.

Dr. Costa’s work has led to a better understanding of how we learn new skills, and of diseases such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, Parkinson’s and Obsessive-Compulsive disorders.

 

View Rui Costa’s profile at Columbia University:

https://zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/rui-costa-dvm-phd

 

Selected Publications

Complementary Contributions of Striatal Projection Pathways to Action Initiation and Execution. Tecuapetla F, Jin X, Lima SQ, Costa RM Cell.2016 Jul 28

Endocannabinoid Modulation of Orbitostriatal Circuits Gates Habit Formation. Gremel CM, Chancey JH, Atwood BK, Luo G, Neve R, Ramakrishnan C, Deisseroth K, Lovinger DM, Costa RM Neuron.2016 Jun 15

Basal ganglia subcircuits distinctively encode the parsing and concatenation of action sequences. Jin X, Tecuapetla F, Costa RM Nat Neurosci.2014 Mar

Concurrent activation of striatal direct and indirect pathways during action initiation. Cui G, Jun SB, Jin X, Pham MD, Vogel SS, Lovinger DM, Costa RM Nature.2013 Feb 14

Corticostriatal plasticity is necessary for learning intentional neuroprosthetic skills. Koralek AC, Jin X, Long JD 2nd, Costa RM, Carmena JM Nature.2012 Mar 4

 

View Rui Costa’s most recent publications on PubMed