Adam Douglass
University of Utah, UT·Neuroscience
Dopamine is a brain chemical messenger that helps control movement. Most research has focused on dopamine-producing cells in a few well-known brain areas.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Biology
- Topics
dopamine
neuromodulation
zebrafish
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2028
What they work on
- Test whether th2 dopamine neuron inputs to different spinal projection neuron groups activate selectively during matching behaviors, routine versus defensive swimming, using calcium imaging of traceable neurons in larval zebrafish.
- Image dopamine release directly at different brain sites to determine whether th2 neuron signals to separate premotor targets vary independently in zebrafish.
- Determine how th2 dopamine neurons change the activity of spinal projection neurons, using in vivo electrophysiology in larval zebrafish.
More about the research
Cells in the hypothalamus, a deep brain region that also regulates basic body functions, have been largely overlooked. A key open question is how dopamine cells pick the right movement for a situation. For example, how does the brain choose between ordinary swimming and an escape?
Why it matters
This work could add to basic understanding of how dopamine helps the brain choose movements suited to an animal's surroundings. It focuses on a previously overlooked group of dopamine neurons. Its findings on how one modulatory system steers specific behaviors could eventually inform studies of movement control in other vertebrates.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Alexandro Ramirez
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, NY·Neuroscience·Early-career
Characterize the activity of newly found hindbrain neurons with pre-saccadic calcium activity in larval zebrafish during saccades and the fast phase of optokinetic stimulation, using whole-brain calcium imaging and electrophysiology.
Guang Yang
Columbia University, NY·Neuroscience
Test whether glutamate-releasing inputs from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the prefrontal cortex weaken after peripheral nerve injury and drive chronic pain, using in vivo calcium imaging and cell type- and projection-specific chemogenetics in mice.
Mark D Bevan
Northwestern University, IL·Neuroscience
Determine how basal ganglia indirect-pathway activity and movement stay normal in presymptomatic MitoPark mice despite ongoing loss of dopamine neurons, using electrophysiology, imaging and behavior.
The school
University of Utah: 58 labs on PI Pages, $789M a year on research, 366 research doctorates a year.
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