Date: Dec 09th, 2025 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Location: Building 46, Room 3189

Speaker: Ni Y. Feng, Ph.D. Assistant Professor. Biology Department, Program in Neuroscience and Behavior, College of Integrative Sciences, Wesleyan University

Title: Hormones, behavior, and the brain: mechanisms of mammalian hibernation
 

Abstract: 

Hibernation is an extreme energy conservation strategy that enables diverse vertebrate species to withstand extended periods of resource scarcity. In mammals, hibernation is characterized by profound, coordinated, and reversible changes in major physiological pathways, including those regulating metabolism, thermoregulation, and cardiovascular function. In addition, hibernators experience dramatic seasonal cycles in basic survival drives such as hunger, thirst, and reproduction. In most hibernating mammals, multiweek torpor bouts are periodically interrupted by brief periods of rewarming known as interbout arousals (IBAs). These torpor–arousal cycles occur 20–30 times during a typical hibernation season and are essential for survival, though their underlying neuroendocrine regulation remains poorly understood. My research uses the thirteen-lined ground squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus) as a model to investigate the behavioral, hormonal, and neural mechanisms that orchestrate these extreme physiological adaptations. Thirteen-lined ground squirrels are uniquely tractable for laboratory studies, permitting the use of modern neuroscience tools such as in-vivo calcium imaging to observe neural activity in real time as animals move through the hibernation cycle. In my talk, I will discuss how hibernators survive up to eight months without water, how they preserve muscle despite months of immobility and starvation, and why even fat-storing species still hoard food in preparation for hibernation. I will also share reflections on doing this work in a small liberal arts research environment, where students play an integral role in every stage of scientific discovery.