Vikaas Sohal, MD, PhD
Professor
Psychiatry
School of Medicine

Dr. Sohal is also a board-certified psychiatrist who supervises residents in the Early Psychosis (PATH) clinic.

After earning a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics at Harvard University, Dr. Sohal earned a master's degree in mathematics at the University of Cambridge in England. He earned his medical and doctoral degrees at Stanford University, where he also completed a residency in adult psychiatry. During residency Dr. Sohal carried out postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Dr Karl Deisseroth, performing some of the first experiments using optogenetics to study information processing in brain circuits.

• Thalamocortical organoids enable in vitro modeling of 22q11.2 microdeletion associated with neuropsychiatric disorders.
  Cell stem cell 2024 Shin D, Kim CN, Ross J, Hennick KM, Wu SR, Paranjape N, Leonard R, Wang JC, Keefe MG, Pavlovic BJ, Donohue KC, Moreau C, Wigdor EM, Larson HH, Allen DE, Cadwell CR, Bhaduri A, Popova G, Bearden CE, …
• Amygdala-hippocampus somatostatin interneuron beta-synchrony underlies a cross-species biomarker of emotional state.
  Neuron 2024 Jackson AD, Cohen JL, Phensy AJ, Chang EF, Dawes HE, Sohal VS
• Tsc1 Loss in VIP-Lineage Cortical Interneurons Results in More VIP+ Interneurons and Enhanced Excitability.
  Cells 2023 Hu JS, Malik R, Sohal VS, Rubenstein JL, Vogt D
• Neurobiology of schizophrenia.
  Current opinion in neurobiology 2023 Sohal VS
• Context-invariant socioemotional encoding by prefrontal ensembles.
  bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 2023 Frost NA, Donohue KC, Sohal V
• Selective Inhibitory Circuit Dysfunction after Chronic Frontal Lobe Contusion.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2022 Nolan AL, Sohal VS, Rosi S
• Fate mapping of neural stem cell niches reveals distinct origins of human cortical astrocytes.
  Science (New York, N.Y.) 2022 Allen DE, Donohue KC, Cadwell CR, Shin D, Keefe MG, Sohal VS, Nowakowski TJ
• P486. Cross-Hemispheric Gamma Synchrony in Prefrontal PVI and Subpopulations of Projection Neurons are Modulated Differentially in a Task-Dependent Manner.
  Biological Psychiatry 2022 Aarron Phensy, Kathleen K.A. Cho, Jingcheng Shi, Vikaas Sohal
• Transforming Discoveries About Cortical Microcircuits and Gamma Oscillations Into New Treatments for Cognitive Deficits in Schizophrenia.
  The American journal of psychiatry 2022 Sohal VS
• Convergence of Clinically Relevant Manipulations on Dopamine-Regulated Prefrontal Activity Underlying Stress Coping Responses.
  Biological psychiatry 2021 Wilke SA, Lavi K, Byeon S, Donohue KC, Sohal VS
• Dynamic patterns of correlated activity in the prefrontal cortex encode information about social behavior.
  PLoS biology 2021 Frost NA, Haggart A, Sohal VS
• Information diversity in individual auditory cortical neurons is associated with functionally distinct coordinated neuronal ensembles.
  Scientific reports 2021 See JZ, Homma NY, Atencio CA, Sohal VS, Schreiner CE
• Regulatory Elements Inserted into AAVs Confer Preferential Activity in Cortical Interneurons.
  eNeuro 2020 Rubin AN, Malik R, Cho KKA, Lim KJ, Lindtner S, Robinson Schwartz SE, Vogt D, Sohal VS, Rubenstein JLR
• Altered hippocampal-prefrontal communication during anxiety-related avoidance in mice deficient for the autism-associated gene Pogz.
  eLife 2020 Cunniff MM, Markenscoff-Papadimitriou E, Ostrowski J, Rubenstein JL, Sohal VS
• GluN2D-mediated excitatory drive onto medial prefrontal cortical PV+ fast-spiking inhibitory interneurons.
  PloS one 2020 Garst-Orozco J, Malik R, Lanz TA, Weber ML, Xi H, Arion D, Enwright JF, Lewis DA, O'Donnell P, Sohal VS, Buhl DL
• Cross-hemispheric gamma synchrony between prefrontal parvalbumin interneurons supports behavioral adaptation during rule shift learning.
  Nature neuroscience 2020 Cho KKA, Davidson TJ, Bouvier G, Marshall JD, Schnitzer MJ, Sohal VS
• Enhancing WNT Signaling Restores Cortical Neuronal Spine Maturation and Synaptogenesis in Tbr1 Mutants.
  Cell reports 2020 Fazel Darbandi S, Robinson Schwartz SE, Pai EL, Everitt A, Turner ML, Cheyette BNR, Willsey AJ, State MW, Sohal VS, Rubenstein JLR
• Integrated Stress Response Inhibitor Reverses Sex-Dependent Behavioral and Cell-Specific Deficits after Mild Repetitive Head Trauma.
  Journal of neurotrauma 2020 Krukowski K, Nolan A, Frias ES, Grue K, Becker M, Ureta G, Delgado L, Bernales S, Sohal VS, Walter P, Rosi S
• Interneuron Transplantation Rescues Social Behavior Deficits without Restoring Wild-Type Physiology in a Mouse Model of Autism with Excessive Synaptic Inhibition.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2020 Southwell DG, Seifikar H, Malik R, Lavi K, Vogt D, Rubenstein JL, Sohal VS
• Tsc1 represses parvalbumin expression and fast-spiking properties in somatostatin lineage cortical interneurons.
  Nature communications 2019 Malik R, Pai EL, Rubin AN, Stafford AM, Angara K, Minasi P, Rubenstein JL, Sohal VS, Vogt D
• GABAergic cell transplants in the anterior cingulate cortex reduce neuropathic pain aversiveness.
  Brain : a journal of neurology 2019 Juarez-Salinas DL, Braz JM, Etlin A, Gee S, Sohal V, Basbaum AI
• Interneuron Transplantation Creates New Network States and Rescues Social Behavior Deficits in a Mouse Model of Autism.
  Neurosurgery 2019 Derek Southwell, Helia Seifikar, Ruchi Malik, Karen Lavi, Daniel Vogt, John Rubenstein, Vikaas Sohal
• Excitation-inhibition balance as a framework for investigating mechanisms in neuropsychiatric disorders.
  Molecular psychiatry 2019 Sohal VS, Rubenstein JLR
• VIP Interneurons Contribute to Avoidance Behavior by Regulating Information Flow across Hippocampal-Prefrontal Networks.
  Neuron 2019 Lee AT, Cunniff MM, See JZ, Wilke SA, Luongo FJ, Ellwood IT, Ponnavolu S, Sohal VS
• Microcircuit Mechanisms through which Mediodorsal Thalamic Input to Anterior Cingulate Cortex Exacerbates Pain-Related Aversion.
  Neuron 2019 Meda KS, Patel T, Braz JM, Malik R, Turner ML, Seifikar H, Basbaum AI, Sohal VS
• Ultrasonic sculpting of virtual optical waveguides in tissue.
  Nature communications 2019 Chamanzar M, Scopelliti MG, Bloch J, Do N, Huh M, Seo D, Iafrati J, Sohal VS, Alam MR, Maharbiz MM
• Author Correction: The CaMKII/NMDA receptor complex controls hippocampal synaptic transmission by kinase-dependent and independent mechanisms.
  Nature communications 2018 Incontro S, Díaz-Alonso J, Iafrati J, Vieira M, Asensio CS, Sohal VS, Roche KW, Bender KJ, Nicoll RA
• Mouse Cntnap2 and Human CNTNAP2 ASD Alleles Cell Autonomously Regulate PV+ Cortical Interneurons.
  Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) 2018 Vogt D, Cho KKA, Shelton SM, Paul A, Huang ZJ, Sohal VS, Rubenstein JLR
• Neonatal Tbr1 Dosage Controls Cortical Layer 6 Connectivity.
  Neuron 2018 Fazel Darbandi S, Robinson Schwartz SE, Qi Q, Catta-Preta R, Pai EL, Mandell JD, Everitt A, Rubin A, Krasnoff RA, Katzman S, Tastad D, Nord AS, Willsey AJ, Chen B, State MW, Sohal VS, Rubenstein JLR
• Upconverting nanoparticle micro-lightbulbs designed for deep tissue optical stimulation and imaging.
  Biomedical optics express 2018 Chamanzar M, Garfield DJ, Iafrati J, Chan EM, Sohal V, Cohen BE, Schuck PJ, Maharbiz MM
• The Psychiatric Cell Map Initiative: A Convergent Systems Biological Approach to Illuminating Key Molecular Pathways in Neuropsychiatric Disorders.
  Cell 2018 Willsey AJ, Morris MT, Wang S, Willsey HR, Sun N, Teerikorpi N, Baum TB, Cagney G, Bender KJ, Desai TA, Srivastava D, Davis GW, Doudna J, Chang E, Sohal V, Lowenstein DH, Li H, Agard D, Keiser MJ, …
• Repeated Mild Head Injury Leads to Wide-Ranging Deficits in Higher-Order Cognitive Functions Associated with the Prefrontal Cortex.
  Journal of neurotrauma 2018 Nolan A, Hennessy E, Krukowski K, Guglielmetti C, Chaumeil MM, Sohal VS, Rosi S
• Coordinated neuronal ensembles in primary auditory cortical columns.
  eLife 2018 See JZ, Atencio CA, Sohal VS, Schreiner CE
• The CaMKII/NMDA receptor complex controls hippocampal synaptic transmission by kinase-dependent and independent mechanisms.
  Nature communications 2018 Incontro S, Díaz-Alonso J, Iafrati J, Vieira M, Asensio CS, Sohal VS, Roche KW, Bender KJ, Nicoll RA
• Roles of Prefrontal Cortex and Mediodorsal Thalamus in Task Engagement and Behavioral Flexibility.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2018 Marton TF, Seifikar H, Luongo FJ, Lee AT, Sohal VS
• A Shared Vision for Machine Learning in Neuroscience.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2018 Vu MT, Adali T, Ba D, Buzsáki G, Carlson D, Heller K, Liston C, Rudin C, Sohal VS, Widge AS, Mayberg HS, Sapiro G, Dzirasa K
• A mouse model of autism implicates endosome pH in the regulation of presynaptic calcium entry.
  Nature communications 2018 Ullman JC, Yang J, Sullivan M, Bendor J, Levy J, Pham E, Silm K, Seifikar H, Sohal VS, Nicoll RA, Edwards RH
• Serotonin enhances excitability and gamma frequency temporal integration in mouse prefrontal fast-spiking interneurons.
  eLife 2017 Athilingam JC, Ben-Shalom R, Keeshen CM, Sohal VS, Bender KJ
• The sodium channel activator Lu AE98134 normalizes the altered firing properties of fast spiking interneurons in Dlx5/6+/- mice.
  Neuroscience letters 2017 von Schoubye NL, Frederiksen K, Kristiansen U, Petersen AV, Dalby NO, Grunnet M, Jensen HS, Jespersen T, Sohal VS, Perrier JF
• Dopamine D2 Receptors Modulate Pyramidal Neurons in Mouse Medial Prefrontal Cortex through a Stimulatory G-Protein Pathway.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2017 Robinson SE, Sohal VS
• The Cytokine CXCL12 Promotes Basket Interneuron Inhibitory Synapses in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex.
  Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) 2017 Wu PR, Cho KKA, Vogt D, Sohal VS, Rubenstein JLR
• Tonic or Phasic Stimulation of Dopaminergic Projections to Prefrontal Cortex Causes Mice to Maintain or Deviate from Previously Learned Behavioral Strategies.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2017 Ellwood IT, Patel T, Wadia V, Lee AT, Liptak AT, Bender KJ, Sohal VS
• D3 Receptors Regulate Excitability in a Unique Class of Prefrontal Pyramidal Cells.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2017 Clarkson RL, Liptak AT, Gee SM, Sohal VS, Bender KJ
• 336 VIP Interneuron Cholinergic Responses are Altered in Multiple Models of Autism.
  Biological Psychiatry 2017 Margaret Cunniff, Vikaas Sohal
• 499 Disrupted Activity in Prefrontal Microcircuits in a Mouse Model of Genetic Risk for Psychiatric Illness.
  Biological Psychiatry 2017 Scott Wilke, Vikaas Sohal
• 706 Wnt/ß-Catenin Pathway Contributions to Dendritic Spine and Glutamatergic Synapse Formation Responsive to Lithium-Mediated GSK3 Inhibition.
  Biological Psychiatry 2017 Robert Stanley, Pierre-Marie Martin, Adam Ross, Andiara Freitas, Jillian Iafrati, Caitlin Moyer, Audrey Brumback, Mehdi Pirooznia, W. Richard McCombie, James Potash, Peter Zandi, Shaun Purcell, …
• Immediate Mood Scaler: Tracking Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety Using a Novel Mobile Mood Scale.
  JMIR mHealth and uHealth 2017 Nahum M, Van Vleet TM, Sohal VS, Mirzabekov JJ, Rao VR, Wallace DL, Lee MB, Dawes H, Stark-Inbar A, Jordan JT, Biagianti B, Merzenich M, Chang EF
• Serotonin 1B Receptors Regulate Prefrontal Function by Gating Callosal and Hippocampal Inputs.
  Cell reports 2016 Kjaerby C, Athilingam J, Robinson SE, Iafrati J, Sohal VS
• DIXDC1 contributes to psychiatric susceptibility by regulating dendritic spine and glutamatergic synapse density via GSK3 and Wnt/β-catenin signaling.
  Molecular psychiatry 2016 Martin PM, Stanley RE, Ross AP, Freitas AE, Moyer CE, Brumback AC, Iafrati J, Stapornwongkul KS, Dominguez S, Kivimäe S, Mulligan KA, Pirooznia M, McCombie WR, Potash JB, Zandi PP, Purcell SM, Sanders…
• How Close Are We to Understanding What (if Anything) γ Oscillations Do in Cortical Circuits?
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2016 Sohal VS
• Making the Right Connections.
  Biological psychiatry 2016 Lee AT, Sohal VS
• Energy-Looping Nanoparticles: Harnessing Excited-State Absorption for Deep-Tissue Imaging.
  ACS nano 2016 Levy ES, Tajon CA, Bischof TS, Iafrati J, Fernandez-Bravo A, Garfield DJ, Chamanzar M, Maharbiz MM, Sohal VS, Schuck PJ, Cohen BE, Chan EM
• Stressing out the Social Network.
  Neuron 2016 Kirkby LA, Sohal VS
• Correlations between prefrontal neurons form a small-world network that optimizes the generation of multineuron sequences of activity.
  Journal of neurophysiology 2016 Luongo FJ, Zimmerman CA, Horn ME, Sohal VS
• A point-process response model for spike trains from single neurons in neural circuits under optogenetic stimulation.
  Statistics in medicine 2015 Luo X, Gee S, Sohal V, Small D
• Deep tissue targeted near-infrared optogenetic stimulation using fully implantable upconverting light bulbs.
  Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference 2015 Chamanzar M, Garfield DJ, Iafrati J, Sohal V, Chan E, Cohen B, Schuck PJ, Maharbiz MM
• Neural Oscillations and Synchrony in Brain Dysfunction and Neuropsychiatric Disorders: It's About Time.
  JAMA psychiatry 2015 Mathalon DH, Sohal VS
• The parvalbumin/somatostatin ratio is increased in Pten mutant mice and by human PTEN ASD alleles.
  Cell reports 2015 Vogt D, Cho KKA, Lee AT, Sohal VS, Rubenstein JLR
• Putative Microcircuit-Level Substrates for Attention Are Disrupted in Mouse Models of Autism.
  Biological psychiatry 2015 Luongo FJ, Horn ME, Sohal VS
• Of Mice, Men, and Microbial Opsins: How Optogenetics Can Help Hone Mouse Models of Mental Illness.
  Biological psychiatry 2015 Marton TF, Sohal VS
• Gamma rhythms link prefrontal interneuron dysfunction with cognitive inflexibility in Dlx5/6(+/-) mice.
  Neuron 2015 Cho KK, Hoch R, Lee AT, Patel T, Rubenstein JL, Sohal VS
• Identifying pathways leading to prefrontal GABA-ergic interneuron dysfunction in schizophrenia.
  The American journal of psychiatry 2014 Sohal VS
• A class of GABAergic neurons in the prefrontal cortex sends long-range projections to the nucleus accumbens and elicits acute avoidance behavior.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2014 Lee AT, Vogt D, Rubenstein JL, Sohal VS
• Optogenetic approaches for investigating neural pathways implicated in schizophrenia and related disorders.
  Human molecular genetics 2014 Cho KK, Sohal VS
• Intrinsic Excitability Defects in Specific Subtypes of Medial Prefrontal Cortex Pyramidal Neurons in a Mouse Model of Autism (I4-1.010).
  Neurology 2014 Audrey Brumback, Vikaas Sohal
• Intrinsic Excitability Defects in Specific Subtypes of Medial Prefrontal Cortex Pyramidal Neurons in a Mouse Model of Autism (P7.329).
  Neurology 2014 Audrey Brumback, Vikaas Sohal
• You Have Your Father’s Nose.
  Science Translational Medicine 2014 Vikaas S. Sohal
• Releasing the Brake Drives Fear Behavior.
  Science Translational Medicine 2014 Vikaas S. Sohal
• Too Much of a Good Thing?.
  Science Translational Medicine 2013 Vikaas S. Sohal
• Serotonin Gives Oxytocin a Helping Hand.
  Science Translational Medicine 2013 Vikaas S. Sohal
• Seeing the Big Picture in Fragile X Syndrome.
  Science Translational Medicine 2013 Vikaas S. Sohal
• Transplanting Interneuron Precursors for Epilepsy Control.
  Science Translational Medicine 2013 Vikaas S. Sohal
• Autism in the Balance.
  Science Translational Medicine 2013 Vikaas S. Sohal
• Stimulating the Prefrontal Cortex to Undo Stimulant Addiction.
  Science Translational Medicine 2013 Vikaas S. Sohal
• Neurons Themselves May Shy Away from Normal Interactions in Autism.
  Science Translational Medicine 2013 Vikaas Sohal
• Chronic reduction in inhibition reduces receptive field size in mouse auditory cortex.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2012 Seybold BA, Stanco A, Cho KK, Potter GB, Kim C, Sohal VS, Rubenstein JL, Schreiner CE
• Synaptic activity unmasks dopamine D2 receptor modulation of a specific class of layer V pyramidal neurons in prefrontal cortex.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2012 Gee S, Ellwood I, Patel T, Luongo F, Deisseroth K, Sohal VS
• Insights into cortical oscillations arising from optogenetic studies.
  Biological psychiatry 2012 Sohal VS
• Responsive neurostimulation suppresses synchronized cortical rhythms in patients with epilepsy.
  Neurosurgery clinics of North America 2011 Sohal VS, Sun FT
• Neocortical excitation/inhibition balance in information processing and social dysfunction.
  Nature 2011 Yizhar O, Fenno LE, Prigge M, Schneider F, Davidson TJ, O'Shea DJ, Sohal VS, Goshen I, Finkelstein J, Paz JT, Stehfest K, Fudim R, Ramakrishnan C, Huguenard JR, Hegemann P, Deisseroth K
• Dlx5 and Dlx6 regulate the development of parvalbumin-expressing cortical interneurons.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2010 Wang Y, Dye CA, Sohal V, Long JE, Estrada RC, Roztocil T, Lufkin T, Deisseroth K, Baraban SC, Rubenstein JL
• Ultrafast optogenetic control.
  Nature neuroscience 2010 Gunaydin LA, Yizhar O, Berndt A, Sohal VS, Deisseroth K, Hegemann P
• Parvalbumin neurons and gamma rhythms enhance cortical circuit performance.
  Nature 2009 Sohal VS, Zhang F, Yizhar O, Deisseroth K
• Intrinsic and synaptic dynamics interact to generate emergent patterns of rhythmic bursting in thalamocortical neurons.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2006 Sohal VS, Pangratz-Fuehrer S, Rudolph U, Huguenard JR
• Inhibitory coupling specifically generates emergent gamma oscillations in diverse cell types.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2005 Sohal VS, Huguenard JR
• Inhibitory interconnections control burst pattern and emergent network synchrony in reticular thalamus.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2003 Sohal VS, Huguenard JR
• Dynamic GABA(A) receptor subtype-specific modulation of the synchrony and duration of thalamic oscillations.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2003 Sohal VS, Keist R, Rudolph U, Huguenard JR
• Reciprocal inhibition controls the oscillatory state in thalamic networks.
  Neurocomputing 2002 Vikaas S Sohal, John R Huguenard
• Clonazepam suppresses oscillations in rat thalamic slices.
  Neurocomputing 2001 Vikaas S Sohal, John R Huguenard
• A model for experience-dependent changes in the responses of inferotemporal neurons.
  Network (Bristol, England) 2000 Sohal VS, Hasselmo ME
• Reciprocal inhibitory connections produce desynchronizing phase lags during intrathalamic oscillations.
  Neurocomputing 2000 Vikaas S Sohal, Molly M Huntsman, John R Huguenard
• Reciprocal inhibitory connections regulate the spatiotemporal properties of intrathalamic oscillations.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2000 Sohal VS, Huntsman MM, Huguenard JR
• A model for experience-dependent changes in the responses of inferotemporal neurons.
  Network Computation in Neural Systems 2000 Vikaas S Sohal, Michael E Hasselmo
• Long-range connections synchronize rather than spread intrathalamic oscillatory activity: Computational modeling and in vitro electrophysiology.
  Neurocomputing 1999 Vikaas S. Sohal, John R. Huguenard
• Long-range connections synchronize rather than spread intrathalamic oscillations: computational modeling and in vitro electrophysiology.
  Journal of neurophysiology 1998 Sohal VS, Huguenard JR
• Changes in GABAB modulation during a theta cycle may be analogous to the fall of temperature during annealing.
  Neural computation 1998 Sohal VS, Hasselmo ME
• Localization of CCK receptors in thalamic reticular neurons: a modeling study.
  Journal of neurophysiology 1998 Sohal VS, Cox CL, Huguenard JR
• A Mathematical Description for Gabaergic Modulation of Sequence Disambiguation in Hippocampal Region CA3.
  Computational Neuroscience 1998 Vikaas S. Sohal, Michael E. Hasselmo
• GABA(B) modulation improves sequence disambiguation in computational models of hippocampal region CA3.
  Hippocampus 1998 Sohal VS, Hasselmo ME
• A Model of Changes in Inferotemporal Activity during a Delayed Match-To-Sample Task.
  Computational Neuroscience 1997 Vikaas S. Sohal, Michael E. Hasselmo