Zachary F. Mainen is the Principal Investigator of the Mainen Lab, where his research focuses on understanding how serotonin modulates neural circuits and behavior, particularly in the context of decision-making, learning, and exploratory behavior. His work combines quantitative behavioral paradigms with electrophysiological and optogenetic techniques to study neural coding and computation, with recent publications examining serotonin's role in neural dynamics, behavioral persistence, and brain-wide activity patterns. He founded and directs the lab's diverse research program, which spans from fundamental neuroscience questions about neuromodulation to applied work on topics such as COVID-19 olfactory screening and perioperative anxiety.