Psychology Colloquium: Neuromodulatory control of maternal behavior in mice

Much of what we know about the direct control of behavior by monoamine neuromodulators such as noradrenaline and dopamine has been learned from structured, highly trained tasks contrived by the experimenter. Yet, there is compelling evidence that these transmitters also figure prominently in motivating and reinforcing spontaneous, natural social behaviors. The inherently unstructured nature of social interactions presents a challenge for assessing the relationship between behavior and neural activity with reliable temporal precision.

Speakers

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  Stephen Shea

  Associate Professor
  Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory