This seminar will be held in the Jerome L. Greene Science Center on Columbia's Manhattanville campus (9th floor lecture hall). Columbia University's Intercampus Shuttle Service is the best way to travel between campuses.

Exposure to odors emanating from a conspecific can influence the food choice, a phenomenon called social transmission of food preference (STFP). The piriform cortex codes olfactory perceptions, while the inactivation of neurons in the nucleus accumbens triggers consumption. The neural circuit and cellular substrate of this transition from olfactory perception to value-based action however remains elusive. Here, Dr. Lüscher provides evidence for synaptic plasticity in the mPFC driving the food preference.

Christian Lüscher is a neurologist and professor of neuroscience at the University of Geneva. His research focuses on the neural basis of drug addiction. He has established a classification of addictive drugs based on the cellular mechanism engaged by each substance to increase dopamine in the mesolimbic reward system and systematically tested the hypothesis that altered synaptic transmission evoked by addictive drugs causes adaptive behaviors, such as locomotor sensitisation or cue associated seeking behavior. This work has led to an emerging circuit model of drug addiction. He lab is also interested in hedonic control of food intake and the circuit alteration underlying obsessive compulsive disorders.

Those who wish to meet the speaker during their visit should contact Christoph Kellendonk. For general inquiries please contact [email protected].

The Columbia Neuroscience Seminar series is a collaborative effort of Columbia's Zuckerman Institute, the Department of Neuroscience, the Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior and the Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative, and with support from the Kavli Institute for Brain Science.