NBIO Presents: Rebecca Shansky, PhD (Northeastern University)

Prefrontal Circuit Mechanisms Driving Sex Differences in Defensive Responding

My lab works to identify sex differences in brain organization that underlie variation in defensive responding. We find that in Pavlovian fear conditioning paradigms, females are more likely than males to engage active, escape-like conditioned responses (“darting”) that may be linked to pain processing cortical circuitry. Recently, our work has focused on connectivity between the anterior cingulate and infralimbic regions of the prefrontal cortex and longitudinal columns of the periaqueductal gray. We use a combination of tract tracing, immunohistological, chemogenetic, and RNAscope techniques to map gene expression and manipulate activity in these circuits, finding novel sex differences in structure and function as they relate to behavioral outcomes. 

Health Sciences G328 and Zoom