International Research Fellowship Program: Serotonergic Regulation of Neuroendocrine, Autonomic, and Behavioral Responses to Acute Stress: The Role of the Dorsomedial Hypothalamus

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0502379GasserThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-two-month research fellowship by Dr. Paul J. Gasser to work with Dr. Christopher A. Lowry at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.This research examines the regulation of neuroendocrine, autonomic, and behavioral components of the stress response by serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) actions in the rat dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH), a nodal structure in the neural circuits mediating physiological and behavioral responses to stress. The project has two primary objectives, 1) to determine the effects of increases in extracellular 5-HT concentrations in the DMH on neuroendocrine, autonomic, and behavioral responses to stress and 2) to investigate the effects of the manipulations described above on signaling within neural circuits mediating physiological and behavioral aspects of the response to stress. The Pis will examine regulation of the magnitude and duration of the acute stress response. This is a fundamental question in vertebrate stress physiology, and has implications for human health, as insufficient control of the stress response has been implicated in human physiological and behavioral disorders, including hypertension, asthma, panic disorder, and major depression. These studies will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Lowry, an international expert on the neuroanatomy of brain serotonergic systems and their roles in the regulation of behavioral responses to stress. Dr. Lowry's laboratory is part of the Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and Endocrinology (HW-LINE), a state-of-the-art research facility which is home to a group of international experts in neural and endocrine regulation of physiology and behavior.