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Autry, Anita

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Autry

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Anita

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Autry, Anita

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2014 - 20184

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Author's Publications: search.filters.isAuthorOfPublication.f17dbedd-9457-4dc7-9b94-234a3d08d5e2

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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Mapping of Brain Activity by Automated Volume Analysis of Immediate Early Genes
    (Elsevier BV, 2016-06) Renier, Nicolas; Adams, Eliza L.; Kirst, Christoph; Wu, Zhuhao; Azevedo, Ricardo; Kohl, Johannes; Kadiri, Lolahon; Umadevi Venkataraju, Kannan; Zhou, Yu; Wang, Victoria X.; Tang, Cheuk Y.; Olsen, Olav; Dulac, Catherine; Osten, Pavel; Tessier-Lavigne, Marc; Autry, Anita
    Understanding how neural information is processed in physiological and pathological states would benefit from precise detection, localization, and quantification of the activity of all neurons across the entire brain, which has not, to date, been achieved in the mammalian brain. We introduce a pipeline for high-speed acquisition of brain activity at cellular resolution through profiling immediate early gene expression using immunostaining and light-sheet fluorescence imaging, followed by automated mapping and analysis of activity by an open-source software program we term ClearMap. We validate the pipeline first by analysis of brain regions activated in response to haloperidol. Next, we report new cortical regions downstream of whisker-evoked sensory processing during active exploration. Last, we combine activity mapping with axon tracing to un-cover new brain regions differentially activated during parenting behavior. This pipeline is widely applicable to different experimental paradigms, including animal species for which transgenic activity reporters are not readily available.
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    Galanin neurons in the medial preoptic area govern parental behavior
    (2014) Wu, Zheng; Autry, Anita; Bergan, Joseph F.; Watabe-Uchida, Mitsuko; Dulac, Catherine
    Mice display robust, stereotyped behaviors toward pups: virgin males typically attack pups, while virgin females and sexually experienced males and females display parental care. We show here that virgin males genetically impaired in vomeronasal sensing do not attack pups and are parental. Further, we uncover a subset of galanin-expressing neurons in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) that are specifically activated during male and female parenting, and a different subpopulation activated during mating. Genetic ablation of MPOA galanin neurons results in dramatic impairment of parental responses in males and females and affects male mating. Optogenetic activation of these neurons in virgin males suppresses inter-male and pup-directed aggression and induces pup grooming. Thus, MPOA galanin neurons emerge as an essential regulatory node of male and female parenting behavior and other social responses. These results provide an entry point to a circuit-level dissection of parental behavior and its modulation by social experience.
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    The Neurobiology of Parenting: A Neural Circuit Perspective
    (Wiley, 2016-12-06) Kohl, Johannes; Dulac, Catherine; Autry, Anita
    Social interactions are essential for animals to reproduce, defend their territory, and raise their young. The conserved nature of social behaviors across animal species suggests that the neural pathways underlying the motivation for, and the execution of, specific social responses are also maintained. Modern tools of neuroscience have offered new opportunities for dissecting the molecular and neural mechanisms controlling specific social responses. We will review here recent insights into the neural circuits underlying a particularly fascinating and important form of social interaction, that of parental care. We will discuss how these findings open new avenues to deconstruct infant-directed behavioral control in males and females, and to help understand the neural basis of parenting in a variety of animal species, including humans.
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    Functional circuit architecture underlying parental behaviour
    (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2018-04) Kohl, Johannes; Babayan, Benedicte M.; Rubinstein, Nimrod D.; Autry, Anita; Marin-Rodriguez, Brenda; Kapoor, Vikrant; Miyamishi, Kazunari; Zweifel, Larry S.; Luo, Liqun; Uchida, Naoshige; Dulac, Catherine
    Parenting is essential for the survival and wellbeing of mammalian offspring but we lack a circuit-level understanding of how distinct components of this behaviour are orchestrated. Here we investigate how Galanin-expressing neurons in the medial preoptic area (MPOAGal) coordinate motor, motivational, hormonal and social aspects of parenting. These neurons integrate inputs from a large number of brain areas, whose activation depends on the animal’s sex and reproductive state. Subsets of MPOAGal neurons form discrete pools defined by their projection sites. While the MPOAGal population is active during all episodes of parental behaviour, individual pools are tuned to characteristic aspects of parenting. Optogenetic manipulation of MPOAGal projections mirrors this specificity, affecting discrete parenting components. This functional organization, reminiscent of the control of motor sequences by pools of spinal cord neurons, provides a new model for how discrete elements of a social behaviour are generated at the circuit level.