Robert C. Froemke, PhD

Skirball Foundation Professor of Genetics, Departments of Neuroscience and Otolaryngology

NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Host(s): Bianca Jones Marlin (Faculty), Alexis Stutzman Lewis (Postdoc) 

Love, Death, and Oxytocin

The neuropeptide oxytocin is important for maternal physiology and social behavior. In this talk, I will discuss new and unpublished data from our lab on when, where, and how oxytocin is released from hypothalamic neurons to enable maternal behavior in new mother mice. I will focus on maternal responses to infant distress calls, and how oxytocin enables rapid neurobehavioral changes for dams and alloparents to recognize the meaning of these calls. We have built a new system combining 24/7 continuous video monitoring with neural recordings from the auditory cortex and oxytocin neurons of the hypothalamus in vivo. With this documentary approach, we have identified behaviors of experienced and naïve adults learning to co-parent together which also activate oxytocin neurons. I will discuss circuits routing sensory information to oxytocin neurons leading to oxytocin release in target areas important for maternal motivation. Finally, I will discuss longer-term behavioral monitoring over months, examining how single mothers build nests to help ensure pup survival or how this sometimes goes awry.

Relevant Publications: 

Neural circuitry for maternal oxytocin release induced by infant cries

Oxytocin neurons enable social transmission of maternal behavior

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 Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, 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.