Nicole Ferrara, Rosalind Franklin University

11:00 AM, Monday, September 21, 2026

KW160, UTSC

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Amygdala cortical area regulation of social development

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​Social behaviors dynamically change across development, beginning with playful exploratory behaviors in adolescence and transitioning to the regulated social contact characteristic of adults. Amygdala maturation parallels this social transition and is believed to be an important factor regulating social development. Here, we identify a role for the amygdala cortical area in social play, where its activity negatively tracks with the degree of social interaction across ages. Its functional chemogenetic inhibition increases social play across ages, demonstrating that activation of the amygdala cortical area changes across development and serves to suppress playful social behaviors characteristic of adolescence. 

Host: Maithe Arruda-Carvalho​

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Milan Valyear, University of British Columbia

1:00 PM, Monday, September 28, 2026

Room 432, Ramsay Wright Building

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Signalling reward: when dopamine does, and when it doesn't

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Dopamine neurons subserve diverse functions that are partly explained by their projection targets in the striatum. One process common to most dopamine neurons is their signalling of reward, and consequently, broad activation of dopamine neurons reinforces behaviour. Here we examine whether some dopamine neurons subserve distinct functions determined by the temporal profile of their activity, revealing that mice can control the duration for which some striatal dopamine terminals are active. The volitional termination of stimulation bouts we refer to as a disengaging property of striatal dopamine which may serve to limit the duration of highly reinforced actions.

Host: Irina Alymova

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