Over the course of FY19, our group continued to investigate the functional organization of the neuronal circuits of the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT),. Of particular interest is our uncovering of two genetically, anatomically and functionally segregated domains of the PVT that are distributed across its antero-posterior axis. These domains are composed of neuronal populations that selectively represent the valence and salience of environmental stimuli. Importantly, we collected compelling evidence demonstrating that salience-encoding neurons of the PVT gate arousal-related information in the medial prefrontal cortex. The results of this study are now under peer review and are expected to be published in FY20. Additional efforts are being placed into identifying the cellular and circuit mechanisms by which the PVT drives instrumental behavior, as well as those mediating the balance between Pavlovian (reactive) and instrumental (active) responses. These efforts have required us to prioritize the establishment of various behavioral paradigms in the laboratory to assess hedonic behaviors and defensive ones. In collaboration with the Rodent Behavioral Core and the Section for Instrumentation we have developed customized behavioral equipment that allows for simultaneously monitoring animal behavior and neural activity.
| Beas, B Sofia; Wright, Brandon J; Skirzewski, Miguel et al. (2018) The locus coeruleus drives disinhibition in the midline thalamus via a dopaminergic mechanism. Nat Neurosci 21:963-973 |
| Stephenson-Jones, Marcus; Yu, Kai; Ahrens, Sandra et al. (2016) A basal ganglia circuit for evaluating action outcomes. Nature 539:289-293 |
| Do Monte, F H; Quirk, G J; Li, B et al. (2016) Retrieving fear memories, as time goes by…. Mol Psychiatry 21:1027-36 |
