Annegret L. Falkner, PhD
Assistant Professor, Princeton Neuroscience Institute
Princeton University
Host(s): Sarah Canetta (Faculty)
Mapping the neural dynamics of social dominance and defeat
Social experiences can have lasting changes on behavior and affective state. In particular, repeated wins and losses during fighting can facilitate and suppress the likelihood of future aggressive behavior, leading to persistent high aggression or low aggression states. We combine quantitative tools for supervised and unsupervised behavioral analysis with a variety of techniques for neural recording and perturbation, to understand how nodes in the brain’s subcortical “social decision-making network” encode and transform aggressive motivation into action, and how these circuits change following social dominance and defeat. Specifically, we focus on the temporal evolution of neural activity in the hypothalamus as aggressive motivation is mapped to action, and how the mesolimbic dopamine system acts to pattern adaptive and maladaptive behaviors during defeat.
Relevant Publications:
Behavioural and dopaminergic signatures of resilience
Independent inhibitory control mechanisms for aggressive motivation and action
Venue Information:
Speaker Location: Jerome L. Greene Science Center, Kavli Auditorium, 9th Floor Lecture Hall
The Columbia Neuroscience Seminars have been organized to help build community and collaboration among researchers interested in this broad field across campus. The in-person activities, including the talks, provide meaningful interactions for the speakers, many of whom have traveled a long way to visit Columbia. However, if you are a Columbia researcher on another campus and are unable to attend the talk at the Jerome L. Greene Science Center, please email [email protected] at least 48 hours in advance to request an individual, one-time Zoom link (livestream only, no Q&A).
If you have a short- or long-term accommodation request (medical issue, travel, other concerns, etc.), or any other questions, please also reach out to [email protected].
Tuesdays@10 is a signature Zuckerman Institute initiative that aims to expose researchers at all levels to high-quality science and stimulate scientific discourse. The speakers featured in this series represent various fields and techniques in neuroscience, and include invited guests of the Columbia Neuroscience Seminars, the Zuckerman Institute's Local Circuits Affiliates Program, and other special seminar series through a combined, collaborative effort of one or more of the following: Columbia's Zuckerman Institute, the Center for Precision Psychiatry, 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.
More information and a full schedule can be found here.