# Neurobiology of Social Behavior: Circuit Analysis in Early Life

> **NIH NIH K99** · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2020 · $104,264

## Abstract

Project Summary
 My long-termcareer goal is to establish a research laboratory that dissects functional microcircuits supporting
flexible social behavior in typical and perturbed development. The lab will integrate state-of-the-art techniques
into a large toolkit of convergent methodologies to assess how neural networks exhibit plasticity to support
adaptive behavior in early life. To effectively lead this future research team, I require additional professional
development and training in techniques for measuring and manipulating neural function in behaving infants. My
training to date has provided me with a strong foundation of skills in rodent developmental neurobiology, stress,
electrophysiology, optogenetics and ex vivo imaging techniques and a broad theoretical approach. My career
development plan expands on this skill set with professional development activities and training in fiber
photometry and the use of microdrives to assess neural circuit dynamics during behavior. By engaging in this
protected training time, I will enter my independent stage of research well-prepared to lead a research team
established to uncover the plasticity of neural circuits supporting social behavior. Research Project: For many
species, access to resources requiresa highly flexible system of social behavior that is sensitive to environmental
demands. Indeed, inflexible social behavior can be highly maladaptive, particularly during developmental
transitions when social demands are in constant flux. Yet, the neural substrates supporting flexible social
behavior during development have been underexplored. The literature and pilot data collected for this proposal
leads me to advance the central hypothesis that the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and its dopaminergic (DA)
control are late-developing components of the social behavior circuit and their recruitment permits behavioral
flexibility to transition a system biasing social approach within the nest into one favoring more inhibited
approach as infants gain independence and enter the complex socia l world. Specifically, the goal of this BRAIN
K99-R00 Award is to apply advanced optical and electrophysiological techniques in infant rats to directly test
this hypothesis in three specific aims. Aim 1 will be performed during the mentored phase (K99) and is to
determine when in development social approach becomes inhibited and how this is controlled by the BLA. Aim
2, initiated during the mentored phase (K99) and completed duringthe independent phase (R00), is to determine
the role of VTA DA release into the BLA in social approach inhibition using convergent approaches to manipulate
and measure DA levels in the BLA. Aim 3, performed during the independent phase (R00), will examine the
relationship between long-range VTA-BLA synchrony and social approach by optogenetically manipulating DA
neurons in the VTA of rats performing a social behavior task while recording spike -LFP synchrony in the VTA
and the BLA. Lack of unders...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10039031
- **Project number:** 1K99MH124434-01
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Maya Opendak
- **Activity code:** K99 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $104,264
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-06-01 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10039031

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10039031, Neurobiology of Social Behavior: Circuit Analysis in Early Life (1K99MH124434-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10039031. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*