Dr. Francesco Papaleo
Genetics of Cognition Laboratory, Neuroscience Area
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
Website Papaleo Lab

Program

"Circuits of Emotion Recognition"

Recognition and reaction to other emotional states is a fundamental and evolutionary conserved ability shaping animals’ life and survival. Altered emotion recognition might prevent to assist a conspecific or to escape an imminent threat. Despite this, it is unclear how cell-specific brain circuits process socially derived information for reliable emotion recognition. Here, I will show how using a combination of anatomical, genetic, chemogenetic, microendoscopic and fiber photometry approaches in mice, we were able to demonstrate the contribution of selective cell populations and brain circuits in the ability to discriminate conspecifics based on their emotional state. The role of oxytocin circuits from the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus to the central amygdala as well as the crucial implication of atypical long-range somatostatin (SOM) inhibitory projections from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) to the retrosplenial cortex (RSC), and an excitatory feedback loop from the RSC to mPFC in emotion discrimination will be presented. Parallel human behavioral and brain imaging assessments linked to animal findings will be presented as well. Overall, our findings provide new insights into the neurobiological mechanisms of emotion recognition, in physiological and pathological conditions.

Host: Ornella VALENTI

Contact for questions: Helmut KUBISTA