Britt Lab

People

Graduate and undergraduate researchers studying the circuits of motivation, led by Jonathan Britt.

Principal Investigator

Jonathan Britt, Ph.D.

Associate Professor · Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Neuroscience

Full profile

Graduate Students

Niharika Dighe Ph.D. Student

Background

Niharika is a Ph.D. student in McGill’s Integrated Program in Neuroscience (IPN).
Madeleine Morris Ph.D. Student
Research interestsMadeleine is interested in understanding the relationship between the physiological basis of dopamine signaling and behaviour. She is currently researching how striatal acetylcholine and dopamine dynamics interact to support synaptic plasticity and learning.

Background

Madeleine presented her work on the role of the RIM protein in dopamine release in McGill’s NBB seminar series in 2025, and is a co-author of the lab’s preprint “A disengaging property of dopamine signaling” (2023).

Fun factMadeleine has been to over 150 concerts!
Elie Bres Ph.D. Student
Research interestsElie seeks to understand how dopamine modulates circuit dynamics during behavioral state transitions.

Background

Elie grew up in Corsica and moved to Canada during high school. He obtained his B.Sc. in Psychology from uOttawa, then completed a master’s degree in Neuroscience at UdeM in Dr. Louis-Éric Trudeau’s lab before spending a year doing research internships in Paris (Faure lab) and Okinawa (Yazaki-Sugiyama lab). After a year in the IPN rotation program, Elie is now a co-supervised Ph.D. student in the Britt and Tritsch labs.
Luna Alkabra M.Sc. Student
Research interestsLuna is interested in understanding how dopamine signaling shapes reward processing, motivation, and learning. Her current research uses fiber photometry and behavioral paradigms in mice to investigate how dopamine dynamics vary across different reward conditions and influence motivated behavior.

Background

Luna completed her B.Sc. in Neuroscience at the University of Toronto Mississauga, where she conducted research on learning, memory, and social behavior in zebrafish. She is currently pursuing her M.Sc. in Neuroscience at McGill University in the Britt Lab. Her research experience spans behavioral neuroscience, clinical neurophysiology, and translational research, reflecting her broader interest in bridging fundamental neuroscience with human health.

Fun factLuna did investigative reporting on a 1979 railway explosion with a researcher from U of T; the work will be included in one of his publications.
Tiago Silva M.Sc. Student
Research interestsTiago is interested in the fundamentals of dopamine in associative learning: how dopamine is used to ascribe importance to cues, how signalling changes as an association is learned, and how this learning system is involved in addiction.

Background

Tiago is an M.Sc. student in the Britt Lab and is transitioning from the master’s to the Ph.D. track to continue this fundamental research through a Ph.D.

Fun factTiago likes to play piano, and his favorite song he’s ever learned is both versions of the Gravity Falls theme song!

Undergraduate researchers

Kiara Breton Undergraduate Researcher
Research interestsMy research interests include learning, reward, and motivation, particularly how the brain processes reward and how these mechanisms influence the motivation to engage in specific behaviours.

Fun factI love listening to Pitbull.
Tess Hetherington Undergraduate Researcher
Research interestsI’m interested in research on addiction and compulsions, including what causes certain individuals to be more susceptible to addictions and compulsive disorders, the neural mechanisms that develop and maintain them, and how dopamine and other neurotransmitters are involved.

Fun factI’m Australian, but I grew up in Hawai‘i… and President Obama’s holiday house was on my street!
Victoria Norton-Poulin Undergraduate Researcher
Research interestsI am especially interested in cue conditioning and addiction memory, as well as clinical affective neuroscience.

Fun factI was trained as a musical theatre performer, and it is still one of my side jobs!
Laurie-Michelle Tremblay Undergraduate Researcher
Research interestsMy research interests focus on neural development and how early-life experiences, such as substance exposure during adolescence, can influence brain function, behaviour, and decision-making later in life. I am especially curious about the neural mechanisms underlying reward learning, cognitive flexibility and vulnerability to addiction.

Fun factI read close to 200 books a year!
Amina Lounnas Undergraduate Researcher
Research interestsI am particularly interested in the role of dopamine dynamics in the striatum and prefrontal cortex (PFC) in psychiatric disorders, especially obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). I am also interested in using computational models to characterize dopamine activity and cognitive processes affected by these disorders.

Fun factI received an “F” for nap time in kindergarten.
Ellie Griffiths-Barnhart Undergraduate Researcher
Research interestsI am extremely interested in exploring the immune system’s role in the onset and exacerbation of neurodegenerative symptoms.

Fun factI’ve lived in 8 different cities so far!
Eza-Marie Lambert Undergraduate Researcher
Research interestsI am interested in studying the interactions between dopamine and acetylcholine and understanding how both of these neurotransmitters modulate striatal plasticity.

Fun factWhen I was a teenager, I was strictly vegetarian, and now I work in a mouse lab!
Shayla Stolberg Undergraduate Researcher
Research interestsMy research interests focus on understanding the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying learning, motivation, and behavior.

Fun factI love running and trying new workout classes!
Mar'ya Chumbayeva Undergraduate Researcher
Research interestsMy research interests include decision-making and behavioral neuroscience, with a focus on how early substance exposure may contribute to long-term changes in cognition, decision-making, and behaviour. I am also interested in the cognitive and emotional processes associated with psychopathology, substance use disorders, and psychological well-being.
Ting yun Huang Undergraduate Researcher

Alumni

Former lab members and where they went next.

Graduate students

Christopher Lafferty

Ph.D. Student
Sean J Reed

Ph.D. Student
Business Development Liaison at SickKids (Toronto)
Karim Bouayad-Gervais

Ph.D. Student (co-supervised with Yogita Chudasama)
President of Pillar Science
Jesse Mendoza

M.Sc. Student
Angela (Kayoung) Yang

M.Sc. Student

Undergraduate researchers

Chloe Pronovost-Morgan

PSYC 395 & 498 & PURA Research Projects
Med student at McGill
Ashley Jussaume

PSYC 380 Research Project
Chelsea Kalla

COGS 444 Research Project
Camille Bouchard

PSYC 494 Research Project
Sebastian Hunte

COGS 444 Research Project
Shangge Jiang

NSCI 420 Research Project
Research Assistant at McGill
Julia Akimoto

PSYC 380 Research Project
Debra Bercovici

PSYC 494 Research Project
Graduate Student at UBC (Stan Floresco Lab)
Julia Yu

PSYC 380 & 496 Research Projects
Graduate Student at UofT (Sheena Josselyn Lab)
Angie (Ye Eun) Lee

Undergraduate Research Assistant
Med student at Yonsei University (Korea)
Jane Su

NSCI 420 Research Project
Med Student at McMaster University
Sarah Martin

PSYC 450 Research Project
Graduate Student at University of Manchester (Forensic Psychology)
Sandy Wong

NSCI 430 Research Project
Graduate Student at McGill (Vision Research Lab)
Veronica Le

NSERC USRA Research Project
Jiamin Song

Undergraduate Research Assistant
Science Writer at NetEase
Martin Dimitrov

PSYC 396 Research Project
Han Byul Moon

SURA Research Project
Steven (Wen) Zhang

NSCI 420 Research Project
Graduate Student at McGill (Jamie Near Lab)
Gabriel Desrosiers-Gregoire

SURA Research Project
Graduate Student at McGill (Mallar Chakravarty Lab)
Sze-Yuh (Nina) Wang

COGS 444 Research Project
Graduate Student at UofT (Yoel Inbar Lab)
Chloe Lau

NSCI 420 Research Project
Project Coordinator at Neuroethics Canada (UBC)
Shannon Harrington

COGS 444 Research Project
Research Assistant at McGill (Ross Otto Lab)
Sarah London

NSCI 420 Research Project
Engineering Student at McGill
Kayla Horowitz

PSYC 496 Research Project
Yasmine Dabbous

COGS 401 Research Project
Dasha Sandra

ARIA Research Project
Sasha Burwell

NSCI 420 Research Project
Graduate Student at Duke University (Michael Tadross Lab)
Joyce Quansah

PSYC 395 & ARIA Research Projects
Graduate Student at UdeM (Jean Gagnon Lab)
Yang Ge

PSYC 450 Research Project
Graduate Student at UBC (Yu Tian Wang Lab)
Louis Huynh

NSCI 420 Research Project
Med Student at Queen's University
Rachelle Zipper

PSYC 396 Research Project
Med Student at Technion Israel Institute of Technology
Chloe Ahluwalia

PSYC 496 & PURA Research Projects
Michael Cressaty

NSCI 420 Research Project
Health Information Specialist at Novus Health
Yu Fei Ma

NSCI 430 Research Project
Med Student at McMaster University
Shira Mattuck

PSYC 496 Research Project
Behavioral Interventionist at Leap Behavior Consulting
Jessica Chan

COGS 396 Research Project