Talk Title: Neural Mechanisms that Generate Persistent Behavioral States

Abstract: 

As animals navigate their environments, their nervous systems transition between a wide range of internal states that influence how sensory information is processed and how behaviors are generated. These states of arousal, motivation, and mood can persist for hours, play a central role in organizing human behavior, and are commonly disrupted in psychiatric disease. Although virtually all animals organize their behavioral outputs in this state-like fashion, the neural mechanisms that underlie the generation of these states remain poorly understood. In this talk, I will present our progress in deciphering neural mechanisms that generate these states, with a focus on the involvement of the distributed neuromodulatory systems that control the brain’s state. Our studies are being performed in the nematode C. elegans, where we can apply cell-specific genetic tools to monitor and perturb neurons throughout a nervous system whose ground-truth connectivity is known. By studying how this organism switches between a range of distinct behavioral states, we have uncovered mechanisms of behavioral state generation that bridge scales of analysis: identifying molecular mechanisms that allow the gut to signal to the brain to activate neuromodulatory systems; defining how neuromodulator release alters ongoing neural circuit dynamics and behavior; and constructing computational models that relate brain-wide neural activity to state-dependent behaviors. We envision that this line of research will reveal fundamental principles of neural circuit function that will generalize across animals.

Bio:

Steve Flavell joined the faculty of MIT in 2016. He received his B.A. From Oberlin College and his Ph.D. from Harvard University, where we worked with Dr. Michael Greenberg. Before arriving at MIT, Steve worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Cori Bargmann’s lab at Rockefeller University. Research in the Flavell Lab is aimed at deciphering the fundamental neural mechanisms that underlie the generation of long-lasting behavioral states. This work primarily focuses on the neuromodulatory systems that control arousal, motivation, and mood across organisms. Steve’s work has been recognized by numerous national awards, including the Weintraub Graduate Student Award, Helen Hay Whitney Fellowship, NARSAD Young Investigator Award, NSF CAREER Award, Sloan Research Fellowship, and McKnight Scholars Award.

Zoom Link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/99919609063

Followed by a reception with food and drink