Ron Keiflin

Ron Keiflin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He received his B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of Strasbourg, France, and his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Bordeaux, France. His postdoctoral research at UC San Francisco and Johns Hopkins University focused on the causal role of phasic dopamine signals in reward prediction learning. His lab at UCSB investigates neural mechanisms underlying associative learning, decision-making, and their dysfunctions in psychiatric disorders such as addiction and schizophrenia.

Research Interests: Dr. Keiflin’s work combines advanced behavioral tasks in rodents with techniques like fiberphotometry, optogenetics, and chemogenetics to study neural circuits involved in reward processing, particularly dopamine pathways influencing striatal and prefrontal networks. His lab explores questions such as how organisms learn predictive relationships between events, exploit memories for adaptive decisions, and how these processes are disrupted in neuropsychiatric conditions.

Advising & Grants: While specific grant details are not provided, his research aligns with cutting-edge neuroscience methodologies. His lab focuses on defining neural circuit dynamics and information processing principles governing behavior.

Labs/Teams: His primary lab at UCSB integrates computational neuroscience approaches with molecular and cellular techniques to study behavior and neural circuits.