Amygdala–frontal anatomy
Mapping how individual amygdala neurons project across frontal cortex and how those projection patterns differ between species.
systems neuroscientist
Zach Zeisler, PhD
I study how the organization and dynamics of frontal–limbic circuits support learning, decision-making, and flexible behavior in primates.
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Rudebeck Lab
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
About
I am a systems neuroscientist interested in how the organization and dynamics of frontal–limbic circuits support learning, decision-making, and flexible behavior in primates. My work combines single-neuron neuroanatomy, electrophysiology, and comparative neuroscience.
I completed my PhD in Peter Rudebeck’s lab at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2024. My doctoral research combined single-neuron projection mapping with cross-species analyses of neural activity to study the organization of amygdala–frontal circuits. I am now a postdoctoral fellow in the Rudebeck Lab, where I study the circuit mechanisms underlying probabilistic learning.
Research
Neural timescales across species
Studying how differences in the temporal structure of neural activity organize frontal and limbic circuits across mice, macaques, and humans.
Reward learning in macaques
I study how interactions between the amygdala and frontal cortex support learning from outcomes during reinforcement learning tasks in macaques.
Selected work
2023
Zeisler ZR, London L, Janssen WG, Fredericks JM, Elorette C, Fujimoto A, Zhan H, Russ BE, Clem RL, Hof PR, Stoll FM, Rudebeck PH. Single basolateral amygdala neurons in macaques exhibit distinct connectional motifs with frontal cortex. Neuron 111(20), 3307–3320.e5 (2023).
Characterization of projection patterns from more than 3,000 macaque basolateral amygdala neurons, revealing structured multi-area projection motifs.
2025
Zeisler ZR, Love M, Rutishauser U, Stoll FM, Rudebeck PH. Consistent hierarchies of single-neuron timescales in mice, macaques, and humans. Journal of Neuroscience 45(19), e2155242025 (2025).
Cross-species analysis identifying largely consistent neural timescale hierarchies across frontal and limbic regions.
Experience
Postdoctoral Fellow, Rudebeck Lab
PhD in Neuroscience
BS in Neuroscience and BA in Latin, summa cum laude
Cajal Club Krieg Cortical Scholar Award, 2025
Contact
I welcome questions about my research, opportunities to collaborate, and invitations to speak.
- Email Me
- Google Scholar View Google Scholar profile
- GitHub github.com/DoubleZZ10
- LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/zacharyzeisler
- ORCID orcid.org/0000-0003-1371-497X
- CV Download CV (PDF)