Topic: operant training

Many animals rely on olfactory cues to navigate their environments. For example, insects are particularly adept at locating odor sources. The navigational algorithms of insects have often been modeled as simple sensorimotor reflexes based on instantaneous cues: surging upwind when encountering the odor and casting crosswind when losing contact with the odor. To investigate whether insects rely on their past sensory experience to guide olfactory-based navigation, we developed a virtual reality olfactory set-up for Drosophila that allows precise closed-loop control over odor encounters. We found

Nucleus Accumbens (Nacb) dopamine (DA) regulates behavioral activation and effort-related decision-making in motivated behaviors. DA depletion has been shown to induce anergia and fatigue in effort-based decision tasks. The Cerebral Dopamine Neurotrophic Factor (CDNF) promotes the survival and function of dopaminergic neurons, and it is used to restore midbrain dopaminergic neurons in animal models of Parkinson’s disease. However, little is known about the role of CDNF in Nacb and if this neurotrophic factor can be affected by factors such as sex or age, behavioral manipulations or drugs that

Experiencing traumatic events can lead to the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in susceptible individuals. Pinpointing risk factors and mechanisms that lower individual vulnerability to PTSD presents a significant clinical challenge with considerable promise in prevention and threapy. Here we aimed to identify pretrauma cognitive and emotional traits and their neurobiological correlates that predict posttrauma fear generalization, a core symptom of PTSD. An unbiased exploration of neurobehavioral vulnerability traits determining trauma-related fear generalization suggests pr