Neural Circuits for Body-Brain Interactions

Speaker: Ivan de Araujo

Abstract:

The presentation will outline neural circuits via which body organs, such as the gastrointestinal tract, may regulate reward and decision making. The presentation will also discuss circuitries via which the brain achieves voluntary control over certain body parts, for example the craniofacial musculature. The identification of neurons and circuits for body—brain communication provides new insights into how internal signals generate behavioral actions and emotional states.

About the speaker:

Ivan de Araujo majored in Philosophy at the University of Brasilia and worked as a postgraduate in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh. He obtained his Doctorate (DPhil) in Medical Physiology and Imaging at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Edmund T. Rolls. During his postdoctoral work in Neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center, he recorded in awake animals the activity of networks of neurons linked to the digestive tract. From 2007 through 2018, he directed the Neurobiology of Feeding Laboratory at Pierce Labs (Yale University), before he joined Mount Sinai in August 2018. After describing the taste-independent calorie sensing phenomenon, his main interests revolve around the question of how the body communicates with the central nervous system, in particular gut-brain signaling via the vagus nerve, and the motor control of the aerodigestive tract.

Time and place:

May 6, 2021, 4:00 p.m. CEST