Welcome to the Barth Lab!

Research in the Barth lab is focused on understanding how experience assembles and alters the properties of neural circuits in the cerebral cortex, in both normal and disease states.

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  The cover image for the January 2025 issue for Trends in Neuroscience. 
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  The cover art for Journal of Neuroscience January 2023! POm thalamacortical inputs show specfic plasticity on to compartments of L5 Pyramidal neurons
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  POm thalamocortical input drives layer-specific microcircuits in somatosensory cortex.
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  Unbiased, high-throughput electron microscopy analysis of experience-dependent synaptic changes in the neocortex.
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  Gephyrin-FingR labeling of PV synapses onto cortical pyramidal neurons
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  Experience dependent plasticity in somatosensory cortex.
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  Network assembly and optimization using principles of neural design.
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  alt textExperience dependent plasticity in somatosensory cortex.
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  GFP labelled population of somatostatin containing neocortical interneurons.
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  GABAb receptors silence excitatory synapses in the neocortex.
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  Single-whisker experience enhances response to low-intensity stimuli. © Elena Peterson
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  Quantitative synapse analysis for cell-type specific connectomics.
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  Precisely Timed Nicotinic Activation Drives SST Inhibition in Neocortical Circuits.

The Barth Lab is looking for motivated and interdisciplinary scientists interested in neural circuits, learning, and computation to investigate how sensory cortex computes novelty and generates signals to drive learning. The candidate will design a research project related to neuromodulatory activation and circuit rewiring, using high-throughput animal training, anatomy, and in vivo imaging, and will be supported through a newly-funded NIH grant. The Barth Lab is one of five dynamic and highly-interactive neuroscience laboratories associated with the Department of Biological Sciences. Located in the Mellon Institute, a historic science building that houses the CMU-Pitt Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, candidates can take advantage of multiple neuroscience-related seminar series, scientific collaborations, and social activities associated with the Center. Postdoctoral candidates should send a letter of interest and their CV to barth@cmu.edu.

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