Dr Phil Heyward

Research

The sense of smell: Our ability to sense airborne chemicals is based on patterns of neuronal activity in the brain. We use electrophysiological recording from brain slices maintained in vitro to study how these patterns of activity are processed by individual neurons and circuits in the brain.

Neurological disorders: Bipolar disorder, depression and epilepsy seem like very different problems, but they each result from abnormal levels of brain neuron activity. To understand these diseases better and develop better treatments we need to know more about how the current treatments work. We therefore focus our studies on how current treatments act on neurons to control their activity as individuals, and as members of brain circuits.