Action, valence, dopamine (ONOS)

Date

Friday, January 31, 2025 - 16:00 to 17:00

Location

Lab1 D015 + Zoom

Description

Action, valence, dopamine
Prof. Bertram Gerber
Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
Friday 31st January 4:00 pm : ZOOM and Lab1 D015 with snacks!

 

It was classically suggested that behaviour can cause emotions (1,2). For example, smiling can make us feel happier (3) and, in rodents, the induced patterns of cardiac activity and breathing that are indicative of fear can in turn evoke it (4,5). We investigate whether inducing backward movement, an element of natural avoidance behaviour in the fly Drosophila melanogaster, engages negative valence signals in these animals, and the neuronal mechanisms and adaptive significance of this effect. We in particular investigate whether backward movement engages central-brain dopaminergic punishment neurons to support aversive memories and counterbalance extinction learning. This has implications for an understanding of the long-standing “avoidance paradox”, the observation that learned avoidance adaptively persists even when avoidance is successful, and no punishment is received (6,7).
 

1. Darwin, C. The expression of the emotions in man and animals. (Murray, 1872).

2. James, W. What is an emotion? Mind 9, 188–205 (1884).

3. Coles, N. A. et al. A multi-lab test of the facial feedback hypothesis by the Many Smiles Collaboration. Nat. Hum. Behav. 6, 1731–1742 (2022).

4. Hsueh, B. et al. Cardiogenic control of affective behavioural state. Nature 615, 292–299 (2023).

5. Jhang, J., Park, S., Liu, S., O’Keefe, D. D. & Han S. A top-down slow breathing circuit that alleviates negative affect in mice. Nat. Neurosci. 27, 2455–2465 (2024).

6. Bolles, R. C. The avoidance learning problem. Psychol. Learn. Motiv. 6, 97–145 (1972).

7. LeDoux, J. E., Moscarello, J., Sears, R. & Campese, V. The birth, death and resurrection of avoidance: A reconceptualization of a troubled paradigm. Mol. Psychiatry 22, 24–36 (2017).

 

 

 

 

 

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