# Functional neuroanatomy of circuits governing parental behavior

> **NIH NIH R00** · ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · 2020 · $87,643

## Abstract

Project summary/abstract
Parental care is essential for the survival and well-being of young, though parents or other adults sometimes
show neglect or aggressive behavior toward infants. While maternal behavior has been studied extensively,
agonistic behavior toward infants remains poorly understood. Our lab has recently demonstrated the power of
combining molecular, optogenetic, and behavioral techniques to understand how galanin neurons in the medial
preoptic area govern positive aspects of parental behavior (Wu, Autry et al., 2014). In the current application, I
plan to expand on this approach to uncover how a population of neurons in the perifornical area of
hypothalamus (PeFA) expressing neuropeptide urocortin-3 (ucn3) governs agonistic infant-directed behavior.
 I found that PeFA neurons are preferentially active during pup-directed aggression, but not parental
behavior, and the activated neurons largely colocalized with ucn3-expressing neurons. Given the involvement
of ucn3 PeFA neurons in anxiety and stress-related behavior combined with my results implicating these
neurons in governing pup-directed agonistic behavior, I hypothesize that PeFA ucn3 neurons that normally
signal a “stressed” state are hijacked in some behavioral contexts to negatively impact pup-directed
social behavior. The goal of my K99/R00 proposal is to define the anatomy and function of this putative
social stress circuit and to connect this anatomy with infant-directed behavior in various physiological states.
 My long-term goal is to become a leading researcher in the field of neuroscience. I plan to focus on
brain centers associated with social behaviors to understand how the brain processes and responds to social
stimuli and how this processing becomes disrupted in disease states. I believe that these studies will enhance
our understanding of behavioral circuits and create translational inroads for treatment of human disorders.
 To accomplish this goal, I will need additional training in the most cutting-edge techniques in the field.
The future of behavioral circuit analysis such as I am proposing will rely on refined circuit tracing methods, in
vivo recording techniques, and manipulating neuronal activity in behavioral contexts. I plan to develop
expertise in these techniques during the mentored phase of the award. Under the primary mentorship of Dr.
Catherine Dulac, I will learn to use the most sophisticated viral tracing tools available through collaboration with
Dr. Liqun Luo and learn to combine optogenetic techniques with tetrode recordings under the co-mentorship of
Dr. Nao Uchida. I will seek guidance from a leading expert in stress, Dr. Joseph Mazjoub, and a world-
renowned expert in psychiatric disease modeling, Dr. Rene Hen, to take my experiments in a direction with
translational potential examining the role of circuits in animal models of Postpartum Depression. With these
additional skills gained through support by the NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independen...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10085730
- **Project number:** 3R00HD085188-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Anita Autry
- **Activity code:** R00 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $87,643
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-06-11 → 2021-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10085730

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10085730, Functional neuroanatomy of circuits governing parental behavior (3R00HD085188-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10085730. Licensed CC0.

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