The senses help sustain brain health by feeding neural input to the cortical networks that support cognition. Sensory decline, particularly untreated hearing and vision loss, is now recognized among the modifiable risk factors for dementia (Lancet Commission, 2024). Olfaction is an especially sensitive readout: a declining sense of smell can precede mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia by several years. Signals from within the body, and mismatches between perception and internal physiological state, are increasingly studied as early indicators of emerging disorder. Recognizing these sensory patterns could help strengthen the resilience of individuals and communities.
About the lab
Our work sits at the intersection of neuroanatomy, physiology, and behavior, studying how sensory input feeds cognitive and affective networks.
The mind does not float free of the body. Signals from within, hunger, arousal, reward, are continuously mapped and integrated by the brain to guide behavior, while the brain in turn regulates the body's internal state. This exchange runs in both directions, and the sensory signals that sustain it also support attention, memory, and higher-order cognition. The Mind Body Systems Lab investigates the circuits responsible for this integration, with a particular focus on the insula and connected networks that represent bodily and chemosensory information.
We take a multi-disciplinary, cross-species approach by design. By pairing high-resolution neuroimaging with electrophysiology and careful behavioral phenotyping in humans, non-human primates, and rodent models, we identify functional equivalents across species and connect them to their underlying neurobiological mechanisms. The goal is translational: to understand how these systems operate in health and how they are altered in neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions.
We are equally committed to open, collaborative science and to building research capacity globally through education and outreach.
Research
The Mind Body Systems Lab investigates how the brain represents the body and the senses, and how that information shapes perception, cognition, and health. We combine multi-modal neuroimaging (fMRI) with electrophysiology and careful behavioral phenotyping across humans, non-human primates, and rodent models to map the functional and anatomical organization of interoceptive and chemosensory systems. This work spans the localization of bodily and taste representations in cortex, the encoding of odor and reward during associative learning, and the behavioral and physiological phenotypes of neuropsychiatric conditions. By identifying functional equivalents across species, we link large-scale brain networks to their underlying neurobiological mechanisms, working toward translational insight into how these systems operate in health and are altered in disease.
Highlights
Contributed chapters on the olfactory system in two forthcoming Elsevier reference volumes edited by George Paxinos, Jürgen K. Mai, and Steve Kassem.
Chapter 34. The Olfactory System
Renée Hartig, Donald Wilson & Naz Dikeçligil
Chapter 26. The Olfactory System
Renée Hartig & Donald Wilson
People
Renée is a neuroscientist studying the brain's anatomical and functional organization of bodily and chemosensory information. Her training spans human behavioral, EEG, and fMRI research (Stony Brook University), integrative multi-modal neuroanatomy of the insula in humans and macaques (University of Tübingen and Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics), and rodent fMRI with electrophysiology in olfaction and reward learning (Central Institute of Mental Health / University of Heidelberg & Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz).
Her research now continues in New York at the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research and NYU's School of Medicine. Alongside research, she leads educational outreach through the Collaborative Science Symposium and teaches at the City University of New York.
Research Scientist
Goethe University
Research Scientist
University of Tübingen
Graduate Student
Stony Brook University
Music & Neuroscience major
College of the Holy Cross
Pre-medicine, Economics major
Georgetown University
Master’s in Public Health
New York University
B.A. in Neuroscience
College of the Holy Cross
L.C.S.W. Program
Stony Brook University