# Kimberly Reinhold ![Kimberly Reinhold headshot](/sites/g/files/omnuum5476/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/2025-07/Reinhold_headshot.JPG?itok=hgJ9gKMz) location\_on 243 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114 email laptop\_windows [Lab website](https://www.reinholdlab.org) laptop\_windows [Publications](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Reinhold+K) Our lab studies how sensory cues become linked to adaptive or maladaptive responses through learning. Adaptive responses are necessary to develop, survive and thrive; maladaptive responses contribute to disorders across the lifespan. We study this learning process in the auditory and visual systems, as well as in the sensory-recipient regions of the basal ganglia. Turning sensory cues into responses requires plastic changes in the brain. We reveal the mechanisms of this plastic process at synaptic, circuit and systems levels. Our work is structured around three fundamental questions: (1) How does learning rewire the brain circuit from cue to response? We measure changes in synaptic connections between sensory cortex and downstream brain areas. (2) Where is the memory stored after learning completes? We track down synapses and circuits that store long-term associative memories. (3) What brain patterns say “Do it!” and which others say “Ignore it”? To figure this out, we record and perturb brain activity in real time. One major challenge to studying this transformation from sensory cue to response is that a single external sensory cue can activate many overlapping and diverging pathways across the brain, making it difficult to trace how behavior emerges. To cut through this complexity, we’ve developed an innovative approach: we train mice to respond to a synthetic cue—optogenetic activation of neurons in the sensory cortex. In essence, we’re “playing” a sensory cue directly into the brain using light. This strategy bypasses some of the brain’s complexity, allowing us to trace the flow of activity through neural pathways with unprecedented clarity. Remarkably, the mice learn to respond to this synthetic cue as if it were a real sensation. This powerful approach enables our lab to precisely probe the cue-to-response pathway and uncover how neural circuits and synapses change as learning unfolds. - ## Location [Massachusetts Eye & Ear](/location/massachusetts-eye-ear) - ## Research Interests [Cell Biology of Neurons & Glia](/research-interests/cell-biology-neurons-glia) [Gene Expression](/research-interests/gene-expression) [Neuropathology & Disease](/research-interests/neuropathology-disease) [Synapse Function & Plasticity](/research-interests/synapse-function-plasticity) [Systems & Integrative Neuroscience](/research-interests/systems-integrative-neuroscience) - ## Research Techniques [Behavioral](/research-technique/behavioral) [Computational](/research-technique/computational) [Electrophysiological](/research-technique/electrophysiological) [Imaging (microscopic and/or functional)](/research-technique/imaging-microscopic-andor-functional) [Molecular Biological and Genetic](/research-technique/molecular-biological-and-genetic) [Neuroanatomical](/research-technique/neuroanatomical) [Neuronal Tissue and Cell Culture](/research-technique/neuronal-tissue-and-cell-culture) - ## People [Faculty](/people/faculty)