[1] Wilson's work integrates electrophysiology, calcium imaging, molecular genetics, connectomics, computational modeling, and behavior to explore how neural circuits are organized to sense complex environments, learn associations between environmental features, and organize adaptive behavioral responses.
[2] She discovered that endocannabinoids—which mimic the active ingredient in marijuana and naturally exist in the brain—were responsible for allowing post-synaptic neurons to communicate to their pre-synaptic counterparts.
There, she began working on Drosophila (fruit flies) as a model organism, seeking to understand how neurons integrate information from their surroundings.
[2] Wilson's laboratory at Harvard University has focused on the neural mechanisms of olfactory and mechanosensory processing, sensory-motor integration, and navigation.
[7] In 2012 she was made a full professor at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Neurobiology; she currently holds the Joseph B. Martin Professorship in Basic Research.