Christian R. Burgess

Christian R. Burgess is an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology and a Research Assistant Professor at the Michigan Neuroscience Institute, Medical School. His research focuses on how learning and changes in motivational/arousal states affect sensory processing, with affiliations to the Caswell Diabetes Institute.

• Education: PhD (2012) and BSc (2005) from University of Toronto, Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School (2017)

His work employs neuroanatomical tracing, optogenetics, and in vivo two-photon calcium imaging in mice to study neural circuits governing sleep, feeding, and sensory processing in higher-order brain regions. Key areas include lateral hypothalamus function and REM sleep regulation.

Recent publications emphasize neuroscience subfields like reward processing, dopamine signaling, and neural circuit dynamics. Notable work includes studies on melanin-concentrating hormone projections and phasic dopamine release in REM sleep timing.

Available to mentor, his laboratory investigates how sensory processing interacts with motivational states, utilizing techniques to map neural pathways in memory formation and behavioral regulation.