# John Assad Professor of Neurobiology, HMS person email laptop\_windows [John Assad's Website](https://assad.hms.harvard.edu/) Our laboratory utilizes a combination of behavioral, electrophysiological, optical and computational approaches in mice to explore the neuronal mechanisms underlying the initiation of voluntary movements. Fundamentally, we are asking the question of what “goes off’ in the brain when we make *self-initiated* movements. The question is not only interesting from a philosophical standpoint, it has important implications for movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. - ## Profile Type [Faculty](/profile-type/faculty)