Demir Lab

Surviving in a complex, ever-changing world requires more than just sensing one’s surroundings. Organisms don’t merely react to their environment; they construct mental maps—flexible internal models shaped by sensory experience, memory and physiological signals—that enable them to interpret their world and anticipate what comes next. Our research seeks to uncover how these models form, adapt and evolve through the intricate interplay of neural circuits and hormonal influences.

Our laboratory focuses on temporal trade-offs—the delicate balance between immediate needs and long-term priorities that shapes decision-making across species. Whether in the instinct-driven choices of animals or the deliberations of human cognition, organisms must constantly weigh the urgency of present survival against the promise of future rewards. We study how the brain integrates social, environmental and physiological cues to navigate these trade-offs, how neural circuits encode time, weigh the costs of waiting, determine its value, and how hormonal states modulate these trade-offs. To investigate these questions, our laboratory combines ecologically inspired quantitative behavioral paradigms with cutting-edge systems neuroscience, capturing the brain’s computations as decisions unfold in real time. By uncovering how hormones such as testosterone and estrogen, along with specific cortical circuits, regulate temporal trade-offs and adaptability, our research identifies the mechanisms underlying disruptions in mental health disorders such as addiction, anxiety, depression and autism, providing a framework for interventions that strengthen cognitive flexibility, improve impulse control and support adaptive decision-making.