Haesler Lab
Novelty, exploration and curiosity
Sebastian Haesler, PhD
Assistant Professor, KU Leuven
Group leader, NERF and VIB
Member of the Leuven Brain Institute
We study the neural circuits underlying exploration and curiosity
When humans or animals detect novel stimuli in their environment, they respond with distinct orienting and exploratory behaviors. We study the brain mechanisms that modulate these behaviours and we develop new experimental methods to improve our abilities to measure and manipulate neurons in the brain.
Our scientific questions
When humans or animals detect novel stimuli in their environment, they respond with distinct orienting and exploratory behaviors. The long-term goal of the Haesler lab is to identify the neural circuits underlying novelty, exploration and curiosity.
Team
Meet the people that make up the Haesler lab
Key publications
Rik Van Daal,
Cagatay Aydin,
Frédéric Michon,
Ano AA Aarts,
Michael Kraft,
Fabian Kloosterman,
Sebastian Haesler,
Implantation of Neuropixels probes for chronic recording of neuronal activity in freely behaving mice and rats, Nat Protoc (2021), 2021
Nicholas A. Steinmetz,
Cagatay Aydin,
Anna Lebedeva,
Michael Okun,
Marius Pachitariu,
Marius Bauza,
Maxime Beau,
Jai Bhagat,
Claudia Böhm,
Martijn Broux,
Susu Chen,
Jennifer Colonell,
Richard J. Gardner,
Bill Karsh,
Fabian Kloosterman,
Dimitar Kostadinov,
Carolina Mora-Lopez,
John O’Callaghan,
Junchol Park,
Jan Putzeys,
Britton Sauerbrei,
Rik Van Daal,
Abraham Z. Vollan,
Shiwei Wang,
Marleen Welkenhuysen,
Zhiwen Ye,
Joshua T. Dudman,
Barundeb Dutta,
Adam W. Hantman,
Kenneth D. Harris,
Albert K. Lee,
Edvard I. Moser,
John O’Keefe,
Alfonso Renart,
Karel Svoboda,
Michael Häusser,
Sebastian Haesler,
Matteo Carandini,
Timothy D. Harris,
Neuropixels 2.0: A miniaturized high-density probe for stable, long-term brain recordings, Science Vol. 372, Issue 6539, 2021
Joachim Morrens,
Cagatay Aydin,
Aliza Janse van Rensburg,
Jose Esquivelzeta,
Sebastian Haesler,
Cue-Evoked Dopamine Promotes Conditioned Responding during Learning, Neuron, 2020
