Behavioral Neuroscience Seminars 2009
Invited Speaker: Craig Ferris
Center for NeuroImaging
Northeastern, Massachusetts
Abstract: Functional MRI in awake male rats combined with 3D computational analysis were used to identifying the putative integrated neural circuits involved in aggressive motivation and fear conditioning and how these circuits are affected by vasopressin signaling in the brain. Aggressive motivation was triggered by exposing a resident male being imaged to their female mate together with a strange male intruder in the bore of the magnet. Conditioned fear was elicited by the presentation of a ferret in the magnet while applying sucrose to the tongue. Weeks later a robust fear response could be elicited by simply applying sucrose to the tongue during an imaging session. Results. Brain areas previously identified as critical in the organization and expression of aggressive behavior were activated by the presence of the male intruder. Unexpected was the intense activation of the forebrain cortex and anterior thalamic nuclei. The putative neural circuits of aggressive motivation and fear conditioning toward a predator both include areas involved in emotional experience (i.e. hippocampus, forebrain cortex, anterior cingulate, retrosplenial cortex) and the anterior thalamic nuclei that bridge the motor and cognitive components of aggression and fear. Drugs that block vasopressin neurotransmission suppress activity in many of these common areas. Biography Craig Ferris, received his bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from New York Medical College, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School. He is acknowledged to be among the leaders in the field of psychopharmacology and pioneered the field of animal imaging Until recently, he was Professor of Psychiatry and Physiology in the Department of Psychiatry and Director, Center of Comparative Neuroimaging, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Now he is Professor of Psychology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Director, Center for Translational NeuroImaging, Northeastern University, Boston MA His research has been supported by the NIH and the NSF. Dr. Ferris has co-founded several successful biotech companies and continues to consult on the development of radiofrequency electronics, contrast agents for use in magnetic resonance imaging, and new psychotherapeutics.