Learning and Memory in Stress Circuits

Event Details

Type

Center for Studies in Physics and Biology Seminars

Speaker(s)

Wilten Nicola, Ph.D., assistant professor, University of Calgary

Speaker bio(s)

The hypothalamic stress response is kicked off by the corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) neurons of the paraventricular nucleus (PVN-CRH). As these neurons act as the final neural controller for the stress response, they are uniquely suited to adapting their neural responses to novel information in potentially stressful environments. Here, with both computational modelling and in vivo one-photon/miniscope recordings of PVN-CRH neurons, we show that these neurons change their tuning properties to novel environments with simple supervised learning rules in the absence or presence of threats or rewards. These changes persist across days and can be induced with only a single exposure to an environment paired with either an aversive stimulus (foot shock) or reward (Nutella). This work was performed in collaboration with the lab of Jaideep Bains [1]. References [1] Füzesi, T., Rasiah, N.P., Rosenegger, D.G., Rojas-Carvajal, M., Chomiak, T., Daviu, N., Molina, L.A., Simone, K., Sterley, T.L., Nicola, W. and Bains, J.S., 2023. Hypothalamic CRH neurons represent physiological memory of positive and negative experience. Nature Communications, 14(1), p.8522.

Open to

Public

Contact

Melanie Lee

Phone

(212) 327-8636

Sponsor

Melanie Lee
(212) 327-8636
leem@rockefeller.edu