Topic: behavioral plasticity

Neuronal circuits universally recognize novel stimuli, but unpredicted features in a stimulus amplify its importance, shaping attentive reactions. Habituation, the gradual reduction of responses to repetitive stimuli, and its counterpart, dishabituation, the reversal of habituated responses upon exposure to novel stimuli, are fundamental processes that organisms employ to navigate their environment efficiently. Although mechanisms driving Habituation/Dishabituation remain partly understood, the communication within neuronal circuits, which ostensibly underlies these choices, is an emerging fie

The value of being able to adapt lies in the potential of an animal to navigate and thrive in an ever-changing environment. In order to survive, animals need to encode experiences molecularly and modulate their behavior to adverse or favorable conditions. Neuropeptides are a well-known, diverse class of molecular messengers that regulate neuronal activity synaptically and non-synaptically to modulate behavior. Neuropeptides and their receptors constitute a widespread signaling network, but how these networks are functionally organized and modulate behavior remains largely unexplored. The nemat