Jun Ding is an assistant professor of neurosurgery and neurology at Stanford University. The scientific goal of the laboratory is to understand the circuits and neural computations involved in generating voluntary movement, with a particular focus on cortico-thalamo-basal ganglia networks. Using electrophysiology, two-photon microscopy, optogenetics and genetic tools, Ding aims to establish causal relationships between activity in specific groups of neurons, circuit function, animal motor behavior and motor learning, and, thereby, to decipher how the basal ganglia process information and guide motor behavior.