Miss Zhen Fang Huang Cao

Interests

The role DA in the VTA→ NAc pathway is kown to play a key role in the motivation to obtain food rewards. In addition, it has been shown that both hedonic as well as metabolic signals from a food reward can modulate VTA DA levels. Therefore, the VTA potentially integrates these two signals to produce behavioral outputs that reflect motivation to obtain food rewards. Although the VTA receives input from both gustatory and homeostatic pathways, the exact pathways that modulate DA-dependent motivation for food rewards are still unknown.

The LHA and leptin play a key role in energy homeostasis. The LHA can modulate the DA system through leptin activation of LHA Leprb→VTA cells. Therefore, this pathway may be in a position to relay metabolic information to the reward system, and affect motivation to obtain food rewards. I propose to test this hypothesis by determining the circuitry of this pathway and the effects that this pathway has on VTA DA output and DA-mediated appetitive behavior.

Research Focus

Equipment

Electrophysiological recording techniques

Fluorescence microscopy

Immunohistochemistry

Intracellular recording

Microscopy

optogenetics

Whole cell patch clamp