A Snapshot seminar hosted by the School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience
Aversive experiences produce emotional states to adaptively shape behavior and produce long term memories. My lab studies the neural circuit and cell coding mechanisms which translate aversive experiences into neural signals which regulate emotional behavior and trigger emotional learning. We’ve recently discovered a brainstem sensorimotor circuit which transduces aversive experiences into instructive signals, conveying both aversive-sensory and aversive-motor information to the amygdala to trigger aversive associative memories. In addition, we’ve found that the brainstem locus coeruleus-noradrenaline (LC-NA) system is modularly organized, serving opposing emotional processing functions through distinct cell populations. Specifically, LC-NA cells projecting to amygdala enhance aversive learning and memory while a separate LC-NA neuronal population projecting to the prefrontal cortex facilitates extinction of emotional responding. These findings reveal the underlying neural circuit mechanisms for how aversive emotional memories arise and are regulated. More broadly, our work shows how neural circuit organization produces neural coding and adaptive behavior and suggests novel treatment strategies for pain, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders associated with aberrant aversive learning.
Host: Tony Pickering
Location: https://bristol-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/4798119105?pwd=MlZRZEt6aWhQb0NYT2pXd3N5aVRvQT09