In a recent study, published in Psychopharmacology, we aimed to investigate the underlying neurobiological mechanisms that regulate different natural reward seeking behaviors: sexual behavior and sucrose self-administration. Different types of stimuli can have attractive and motivational values that induce approach and consummatory behavior. Food, social interactions, and sexual partners are examples of ‘natural rewards’, because they induce behavior that is needed to survive, or to ensure survival of the species. At the same time, they are examples of ‘intrinsic rewards’, rewards that have an unconditioned, inherently pleasurable value.
News archive
19.02.2024:
Symposium 'Food for thought'
We are organizing the symposium 'Food for Thought' on the 14th of March 2024!
Come join us to see international and local speakers present their latest food-related research.
15.02.2024:
New paper: Junk food consumption alters the way our brain regions respond to food rewards
Excessive consumption of foods rich in sugar and fat, often referred to as “junk” or “fast” foods, plays a central role in the development of obesity. The highly palatable characteristics of these foods activate hedonic and motivational mechanisms to promote food-seeking behavior and overeating, which is largely regulated by the brain reward system. This study, published in Physiology & Behavior, investigated whether consumption junk food for several weeks can change the responses in the brain reward system to food rewards.
10.01.2024:
The Health Faculty Research Seminar
Every 15th of the month (kl. 12:15-13:00), a different keynote speaker (from different institutes) will present their research, followed by some free coffee, tea and snacks!
(location: MH1 Store Auditorium)
10.08.2023:
Research Prize 2023
We are proud to share that our research group has been awarded with the annual Research Prize of the Faculty of Health Sciences at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Research Prize 2023
We are proud to share that our research group has been awarded with the annual Research Prize of the Faculty of Health Sciences at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
The committee stated that: "Over the course of several years, the researchers have built up a renowned neuroscience environment at the university. The main focus is on the question of how the brain regulates naturally rewarding behavior. The group has a large international network, which has contributed to success in obtaining external funding. Additionally, they can point to an impressive list of publications with solid research results."
Here a link to the orginal news item.
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31.03.2023:
What about applying for a MSCA-PF with us?
Are you a passionate researcher at the interface of Machine Learning, Data Science and Neuroscience, whose goal is to advance our understanding of the principles of sociosexual behavior in biological networks?
-> What about applying for a MSCA-PF with us?
08.05.2022:
Neuron crochet blanket
A few months ago, Eelke was challenged to crochet a blanket with the image of a neuron. That challenge had to be accomplished, of course! Now, four months later, the blanket is really here!
Neuron crochet blanket
A few months ago, Eelke was challenged to crochet a blanket with the image of a neuron. That challenge had to be accomplished, of course! Now, four months later, the blanket is really here!
The blanket received a lot of attention on Twitter, and several people asked for a pattern. As I am only an amateur, there is no professional pattern available, but here's a description of how the blanket came about.
First, I watched all instruction video’s of Tinna Thorudottir Thorvaldar on how to make a blanket using the mosaic crochet technique (I actually made this Queen Cal blanket first).
Then I used the free online software stitchfiddle and a random image of a neuron available on the internet to make my own pattern.
The end result is a blanket of 150x96cm including the double border. The pattern is based on yarn that gave ca 22 stitches per 10 cm of blanket.
The pattern: (download on the right)
On the pattern you see which color to use (color 1 (e.g. blue) as background and color 2 (e.g. grey) as neuron). As soon as a third color comes in (e.g. white), this is marked next to color 2.
X = double crochet
à or ~ = single crochet
No symbol = double crochet for color 1 and single crochet for color 2
Black = nothing, follow as if it was empty, it just shows how the final image will become
If someone gets inspired, I would love to hear about it!
Enjoy!
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30.03.2022:
Participate in a project about the effects of food on the brain reward system!
Are you curious about the effects of food on the brain? Are you interested in psychology and neuroscience? Do you want to know how a biomedical experiment works? If you have answered “yes” to one of these questions, you might like to participate in a study about the effects of food on the brain, being conducting at the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Health Sciences at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Participate in a project about the effects of food on the brain reward system!
Are you curious about the effects of food on the brain? Are you interested in psychology and neuroscience? Do you want to know how a biomedical experiment works? If you have answered “yes” to one of these questions, you might like to participate in a study about the effects of food on the brain, being conducting at the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Health Sciences at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Are you curious about the effects of food on the brain? Are you interested in psychology and neuroscience? Do you want to know how a biomedical experiment works? If you have answered “yes” to one of these questions, you might like to participate in a study about the effects of food on the brain, being conducting at the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Health Sciences at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.This study is part of a translational project (funded by Helse Nord) aimed to investigate the effects of junk food on the reward system of the brain. This reward system is a collection of structures in the brain and connections between them that regulate how we respond to different stimuli. This reward system works by linking beneficial situations or actions to a feeling of pleasure. Food, drinking, socializing and sex are hardwired in the brains of many animal species, including humans, to be pleasurable. We want to find out if eating junk food for a longer period could change how the reward system works.
This translational project has two related research lines. In the first one, we test the effects of “cafeteria diet” in rats [you can read more about it in a review published by our research group: link to the review]. The “cafeteria diet” consists of the same unhealthy but tasty and ultra-processed products that humans eat. Looking at the rats’ behavior and the activity of specific parts of the brain at the same time, we are able to measure if and how junk food can change the reward system and behavior.
For the second line, we want to study the effects of food in human volunteers, by using a type of brain scan (functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI).
Are you interested to participate? Do you want to know more about this project?
Please fill up the form and we will contact you very soon: http://tinyurl.com/uitfoodreward
The outcome of this project will contribute to explaining the underlying mechanisms of the vulnerability of the reward system by junk food consumption. This will help with more research, and hopefully therapies, for diseases that where the reward system has become unbalanced, such as obesity and addiction.
(picture (CC) by Marco Verch https://flickr.com/photos/30478819@N08/48814061166)
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18.03.2022:
Forskerne kommer!
Eelke Snoeren is participating in Forskerne kommer again! She will travel around Norther Norway to visit schools and talk about her research.
18.03.2022:
Radio interview
Eelke was interviewed by the radio program EKKO NRK P2. If you are interested in hearing more about our research project on the effects of excessive junk food consumption on the reward system, then listen to Ekko - NRK Radio (around 1:30, in Norwegian)
18.03.2022:
Interview with Eelke in Khrono
Eelke was interviewed by Khrono on the consequences of the long animal facility closure on her research activities. The article (in Norwegian) was published on Khrono on the 13th of March 2022.
24.09.2021:
Patty Huijgens earned her PhD
Tuesday September 7th marked the end of an era. After years of hard work, Patty Huijgens succesfully defended her PhD thesis entitled "Organization and orchestration of male rat sexual behavior". Professor Juan Dominguez of University of Texas and dr. Susana Lima of the Champalimaud Centre of the Unknown acted as opponents and their engaging discussions allowed then-candidate Patty to show the bredth and depth of her scientific knowledge.For parts of her thesis, Patty traveled to Utrecht in the Netherlands and Minneapolis in the US to perform experiments. Back in Tromsø, she will first stay in our group as postdoc, after which she will start her independent research line as a researcher.
24.09.2021:
New paper: Antidepressant use during pregnancy leads to less detailed investigation strategies in novel environments in the offspring.
Antidepressant treatment is often used for pregnant women who are depressed. Although the treatment with fluoxetine is generally safe and can be necessary to lessen the effects of depression, the drug could still have damaging long-term effects on the children of these mothers. Previously, we have found that adult rats behave differently when their mothers were given fluoxetine during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Social behavior, coping with stress, but also prosocial behavior are types of behavior that appear to be changed. In the current study, we found that the children also use a different investigation strategies when exploring a novel (and thus stressful) environment. The findings are published in the journal Psychopharmacology.
16.07.2021:
New paper: the pauses during sex
In Snoerenlab, we are very passionate about studying animal behavior in great depth. In our opinion, a thorough understanding of the patterns and structures of complex behavior, such as sexual behavior, is absolutely necessary for the formation of new hypotheses about how the brain regulates the behavior. In the recent decades, many new methods have been developed to study and manipulate the activity of neurons in specific brain regions. The description and analysis of behavioral results in studies using these techniques are often oversimplified. This leads to many missed opportunities in advancing our understanding of the relation between the brain and behavior. Therefore, we decided it was time to up the game for studies of sexual behavior in male rats, focusing on the behavioral organization of the pauses during sex in our latest paper which is now published in Behavioural Processes.
10.06.2021:
New paper: Protein appetite drives macronutrient-related differences in ventral tegmental area neural activity
Not getting enough of the macronutrient protein in our diet has severe consequences for health and ultimately can lead to death. It has even been suggested that a low level of dietary protein can cause obesity by leveraging up intake of fat and carbohydrate. However, little is known about how the brain ensures adequate protein intake. In this recent paper published open access in The Journal of Neuroscience , we showed that when rats were protein-restricted a key part of the brain's reward circuity, the VTA, was activated more strongly when rats were drinking protein than carbohydrate. Moreover, after the rats' diet was changed their behavior towards protein shifted quickly even though the VTA activity evoked by protein remained high.Thus, there might be persistent effects of protein deprivation on brain activation.
12.05.2021:
New paper: Rat ultrasonic vocalizations and novelty-induced social and non-social investigation behavior in a seminatural environment
Babies cry, dogs bark, horses neigh and birds sing. Every animal makes its own sounds which can serve different functions. Babies might cry because they are hungry and want attention from their mothers, dogs bark to communicate they want to play or to warn for intruders, and birds sing to attract a mate partner. Rats also make sounds, and some of these sounds, ultrasonic vocalizations, are sounds that we as humans cannot hear. In our latest study, published in the journal Physiology and Behavior, we investigated the role of these vocalizations in more detail: do silent rats behave differently or similarly to vocalizing rats when we put them in a seminatural environment with multiple unfamiliar rats?
22.02.2021:
New paper: Distracting stimuli evoke neural responses in rats during ongoing saccharin consumption
Why do we sometimes get distracted by things around us and what is happening in the brain when this happens? Distractions are a way of pausing what we are doing to check whether something important is occurring in our environment. In an animal like a rat this might mean being alert to potential threats (eg predators) even while in the middle of a meal.
18.01.2021:
New paper: Cafeteria diet as model to study excessive junk food consumption
Junk food is both appetizing and consists of high-energy nutrients, which is why the consumption of junk food plays a central role in weight gain, obesity and the associated health risks. To study the effects of junk food on different on different aspects of health, researchers have to use standardized diets, very often in animal models. The Cafeteria (CAF) diet model for animal experiments consists of the same tasty but unhealthy food products that people eat (e.g. hot dogs and muffins), and considers variety, novelty and secondary food features, such as smell and texture. This model, therefore, mimics human eating patterns better than other models.
30.11.2020:
New paper: Male sex hormones change the architecture of neurons in the brain
Sex hormones, such as estrogens and testosterone, are well known to be important for the menstrual cycle, development of sex specific characteristics, and gain of muscle mass. We understand the mechanisms behind these hormonal actions. Still subject to research is how sex hormones in the brain affect sexual behavior, aggression, and even memory. In our latest research project, carried out in Minneapolis with our collaborators, we discovered that in rats, male sex hormones change the structure of neurons in certain brain areas that are involved in the regulation of sexual behavior, motivation, and reward. These findings, published in the Journal of Neuroendocrinology , shine some light on how sex hormones might ultimately influence behavior.
New paper: Male sex hormones change the architecture of neurons in the brain
Sex hormones, such as estrogens and testosterone, are well known to be important for the menstrual cycle, development of sex specific characteristics, and gain of muscle mass. We understand the mechanisms behind these hormonal actions. Still subject to research is how sex hormones in the brain affect sexual behavior, aggression, and even memory. In our latest research project, carried out in Minneapolis with our collaborators, we discovered that in rats, male sex hormones change the structure of neurons in certain brain areas that are involved in the regulation of sexual behavior, motivation, and reward. These findings, published in the Journal of Neuroendocrinology , shine some light on how sex hormones might ultimately influence behavior.
Research on the effect of sex hormones in the brain is often focused on females. This is because the different phases of the menstrual cycle, which is regulated by fluctuations of sex hormone levels, dramatically affect sexual behavior in female rats. Female rats will only participate in sex during one of the menstrual cycle phases, just after levels of estrogens in the blood peaked. Previous research has shown that the high levels of estrogens cause neurons in the hypothalamus to change their structure. Because the hypothalamus is an important brain region for sexual behavior, it is therefore suggested that the structural neuronal changes partly explain why female rats become motivated for sex during the following phase of the menstrual cycle.
The structural neuronal changes in females during the menstrual cycle entail that the neurons become more complex due to estrogens. As shown in the picture, the structure of a neuron consists of a cell body, dendrites, and axons. The axons of a neuron connect with the dendrites of other neurons. More specifically, the contact between axons and dendrites occurs in even smaller structures on the dendrite called spines. When estrogens cause neurons in the hypothalamus of females to become more complex, it means that they increase the number of spines on the dendrites of neurons in the hypothalamus. This enables these neurons to make even more connections with other neurons. This increased connectivity in the hypothalamus caused by estrogens is necessary for female rats to be motivated for sex.
Even though males do not have a menstrual cycle, there are still fluctuations of male sex hormones during life and during certain behaviors such as aggression and sex. Therefore, the aim of our study was to find out whether male sex hormones in males can also cause the same structural changes of neurons that were found in females due to estrogens. To study this, we castrated male rats so that they would not have any sex hormones in their body and then looked at the dendrites of the neurons in different brain regions of those rats. Because neurons and their spines are tiny, we used a microscope that can take pictures of dendrites at a very high magnification and with a very high resolution. An example of such a picture is displayed here. This picture also shows a 3D reconstruction of the dendrite section that we made with the help of a specialized software program. With this 3D reconstruction, we were not only able to count the number of spines on the dendrite section, but also to determine the length and thickness of all of those spines.
We found that dendrites of neurons in the hypothalamus of the castrated male rats (which did not have any sex hormones) only had about half the number of spines compared to those of males that still had sex hormones. When we treated castrated males with dihydrotestosterone (a “male sex hormone”), the number of spines was no different from non-castrated males. This means that sex hormones are necessary for male rats to maintain the normal architecture of the neurons in the hypothalamus. We also found effects of dihydrotestosterone on neurons in the amygdala, another brain region important for sexual behavior, and in the nucleus accumbens, a brain region in the “reward system” of the brain which responds to all kinds of things that we like, such as sex. Finally, we found some evidence that shows that male sex hormones may use a similar mechanism as female sex hormones through which they affect neuronal structure.
Whether the changing number of spines caused by male sex hormones are also important for sexual motivation in males will be investigated in future research. With this study, however, we have made the first step in finding out how sex hormones might influence behavior in males. It could well be that this is regulated in a similar matter as in females.
This study was conducted in the labs of Professor Robert Meisel and Professor Paul Mermelstein at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, USA. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Norwegian Research Council. Patty received a personal grant from the Norwegian Research Council for her research stay in Minneapolis.
[Summary by Patty]
Huijgens PT, Snoeren EMS, Meisel RL, Mermelstein PG. Effects of gonadectomy and dihydrotestosterone on neuronal pasticity in motivation and reward related brain regions in the male rat. J Neuroendocrinol. 2020. doi: 10.1111/jne.12918
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19.08.2020:
New paper: Too little protein changes dopamine release in the brain
Getting enough protein in our food is crucial for health and development. When we are still growing this protein is especially important. In this study, we looked at how inadequate dietary protein affects brain function both when rats were adults and during their adolescence. We used a recording technique called fast-scan cyclic voltammetry, and saw that low protein diets affected the release of dopamine, an essential neurotransmitter for motivation and learning. Interestingly, the consequence of the low protein diet differed depending on the age of the rats and had stronger effects in adolescent animals than in adults. This research, published as open access in Neuropsychopharmacology , highlights the vulnerability of the brain to dietary deficiencies during development.
27.04.2020:
New paper: Rats show prosocial behavior in a natural setting
Consolation behavior is a type of prosocial behavior that is aimed at an individual in distress. Typically, it involves physical closeness and contact, which has a calming effect on the distressed individual. In our society, it is behavior that we easily recognize, but consolation is not a purely human phenomenon: chimpanzees, dogs, elephants and prairie voles are some of the animals that console each other when the going gets tough. Based on our latest research, published in the journal Physiology and Behavior, we might be able to add rats to the list of animals that are capable of consoling each other.
13.02.2020:
EU funding for Jaume Ferrer Lalanza
We are beyond proud to announce that our postdoc Jaume Ferrer won a very prestigious, EU funded, Marie Curie individual fellowship. With this grant, Jaume will study the effects of junk food on the reward system. In other words, the mechanisms by which unhealthy food modifies our brain in relation to our motivations and rewards
22.01.2020:
James McCutcheon wins big research grant to start ambitious project
We hadn't even properly introduced the new associate professor of our research group, when Dr. James McCutcheon was awarded a Starting Grant from Tromsø Forskningstiftelse. He will now be able to build his own research team, which will work to find out how animals regulate their intake of protein.
21.06.2019:
Nordic Neuroscience meeting
Helsinki formed the stage on which this year's Nordic Neuroscience meeting took place. After Trondheim in 2015 and Stockholm in 2017, this was the third time the biennial conference was organized. We were there to present our latest research.
Nordic Neuroscience meeting
Helsinki formed the stage on which this year's Nordic Neuroscience meeting took place. After Trondheim in 2015 and Stockholm in 2017, this was the third time the biennial conference was organized. We were there to present our latest research.
With only about 400 people, the Nordic Neuroscience conference is relatively small, resulting in a nice athmosphere during lectures and poster sessions.
At these poster sessions, our group was represented by no less than four posters. Indrek, Roy and Jan all presented posters about the influence of perinatal exposure on behavior of the offspring. For Jan, who received an A for his master's thesis the week before, presenting his poster was a nice introduction to scientific conferences. Patty presented a poster about the role of a specific circuit in the brain on the motivation for a food reward.
Another benefit of these smaller conferences is the possibility to network with other researchers in the Nordic region and forge new collaborations. This usually takes place at the fringes of the conference, for example during the commen dinner on Thursday, when even the president of the European Research Council and the president of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies joined us.
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15.04.2019:
New paper: Are the kids alright? The effects of antidepressant use during pregnancy
When pregnant women get depressed, they often get treated with the antidepressant fluoxetine. Using this antidepressant is generally safe and can be necessary to lessen the effects of depression. Still, it has been difficult to find out if this drug has damaging long-term effects on the children of these mothers. In our latest work, we have found that adult rats behave differently when their mothers were given fluoxetine during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Social behavior and coping with stress are types of behavior that appear to be changed. The findings are published in the journal Neuropharmacology.
New paper: Are the kids alright? The effects of antidepressant use during pregnancy
When pregnant women get depressed, they often get treated with the antidepressant fluoxetine. Using this antidepressant is generally safe and can be necessary to lessen the effects of depression. Still, it has been difficult to find out if this drug has damaging long-term effects on the children of these mothers. In our latest work, we have found that adult rats behave differently when their mothers were given fluoxetine during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Social behavior and coping with stress are types of behavior that appear to be changed. The findings are published in the journal Neuropharmacology.
Fluoxetine is a so-called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), which increases the concentration of the signal molecule serotonin in the small gaps between brain cells. The mechanism behind the antidepressant effect of SSRIs is still unclear, but elevated levels of serotonin may play a role. But serotonin also has a role in the development of the brain of a fetus. So if a fetus is exposed to a drug that elevates serotonin levels, does something happen to the brain, and would we still see these effects when the children are grown up?
Previous research with humans showed that children that were exposed to SSRIs can sometimes have a different social-emotional development. Some even suggested that the risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is higher. But pregnant women only use antidepressants because they are depressed, which in itself is known for having effects on the child.
To make sure that we can separate the possible effects of a depression from those of the antidepressant, animals can be used. Some animal studies show differences in aggression, play behavior and sexual behavior if rats were exposed to SSRIs during development. Very often though, only one type of behavior can be tested at a time, and the time an animal is tested is limited. The results of these tests can indicate that something has gone wrong in isolation, but do not tell us how big the effects are ‘in real life’.
In our experiments, we treated healthy, female rats with fluoxetine (or a control substance) during the period of pregnancy and breastfeeding. We let their pups grow up and put them together (eight at a time) in a seminatural environment for eight days. This seminatural environment is much bigger than a usual test box and is divided in an open area (where it gets light and dark during the day) and a dark ‘burrow’ area that looks similar to the tunnels of rats under the ground. This way we could study in detail how each animal behaved and interacted with its environment and the other animals.
When we analyzed the animals’ behavior at baseline on the fourth day in the seminatural environment, we saw that both fluoxetine (FLX) exposed males and females spent more time on social behavior. More specifically, the animals were resting together and ‘cuddling’ more, compared to the control animals (passive social behavior). On the other hand, FLX-females tended to take less part in active social behavior.
To see if their behavior changed during and immediately after a stressful situation, we played a loud white-noise for 10 minutes. This caused the animals to run around in the burrow area much more. In the open area, it is more difficult to hide: animals that were there, mostly fled to the burrow, but some froze in the open area. The differences we saw earlier disappeared: the social behavior of exposed animals was no longer different from the control animals. However, we saw that the FLX females that liked cuddling with other rats now started to rest more alone, while the control females were instead seeking each other’s company.
Rodents groom themselves very frequently. Besides the obvious purpose of skincare, self-grooming can also be seen more during and after stressful situations. This type of self-grooming has previously been explained as displacement behavior. At baseline, especially the FLX-males behaved differently from the control-males: they self-groomed much less. But after the white noise, they started self-grooming more than before, even more than control-animals. FLX-females also spent more time on self-grooming than before the stressful situation. We believe that this increase in self-grooming is a sign of increased stress levels, and that they use self-grooming as coping mechanism.
This study showed that, in rats, SSRI exposure during and immediately after pregnancy was associated with long-term effects on social behavior and stress-coping. In addition, these differences are not equal between males and females. We also showed that the seminatural environment provides a good experimental setting, in which we can study many different behaviors and their interactions. We do have to be careful to draw big conclusions about the use of SSRIs. Even though we see that social behavior and stress-coping are different after SSRI exposure as fetus, that does not necessarily mean that these animals were worse off. Much more research is needed to map long-term effects of SSRIs on different types of behaviors.
This study is part of a collaboration between our group at UiT The Arctic University of Norway and the University of Groningen. It was funded by Helse Nord RHF.
[Summary by Roy Heijkoop]
Houwing, D. J., Heijkoop, R., Olivier, J. D., & Snoeren, E. M. (2019). Perinatal fluoxetine exposure changes social and stress-coping behavior in adult rats housed in a seminatural environment. Neuropharmacology, 151, 84-97. doi:10.1016/j.neuropharm.2019.03.037
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12.03.2019:
Helse Nord finances new project
We are pleased to announce that last November, Helse Nord RHF awarded us a sizeable grant (3.25 million Norwegian krone). Starting in september 2019, this money will be used in the project: "The risk of excessive junk food consumption on the brain reward system. A translational study."
09.08.2018:
We're going international!
Being the northernmost neuroclub in the world is interesting, but every so often it can also be very advantageous to get inspired and strengthen collaborations abroad. Our department has kindly offered to support the scientific development of our group by enabling a stay at a foreign university.
09.08.2018:
Dutch Neuroscience Meeting
Scientific conferences are a good channel to communicate your research, learn about colleagues’ findings and experiences, get helpful input and forge collaborations. Conferences also can be the perfect backdrop to get together with old colleagues and friends. This year’s Dutch Neuroscience Meeting was all of this!
Dutch Neuroscience Meeting
Scientific conferences are a good channel to communicate your research, learn about colleagues’ findings and experiences, get helpful input and forge collaborations. Conferences also can be the perfect backdrop to get together with old colleagues and friends. This year’s Dutch Neuroscience Meeting was all of this!
Eelke was invited to give talks about both our research lines, and to chair a session. This picture was taken during her talk about what we found when we looked into social behavior of offspring that were perinatally exposed to the antidepressant fluoxetine.
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04.07.2018:
Pretty neuroscience
PhD student Patty Huijgens is currently overseas, doing research in the lab of Professor Robert Meisel at the University of Minnesota. She sent us a stunning photo she made, showing dendritic spines in different brain areas.
Pretty neuroscience
PhD student Patty Huijgens is currently overseas, doing research in the lab of Professor Robert Meisel at the University of Minnesota. She sent us a stunning photo she made, showing dendritic spines in different brain areas.
Spines are the tiny, in this case mostly stalk-like, protrusions on the "receiving" end of neurons. Due to the fact that in a short time spines can (dis)appear or change shapes, they play a vital role in connectivity between neurons, and are most likely a key mechanism behind learning and memory.
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11.04.2018:
Symposium: Neurobiology of rewarding behaviors
After a day filled with four thought-provoking lectures and excellent questions from the audience, the only conclusion we were able to draw was: let's do this again!
Symposium: Neurobiology of rewarding behaviors
After a day filled with four thought-provoking lectures and excellent questions from the audience, the only conclusion we were able to draw was: let's do this again!
Our own Eelke Snoeren gave the first lecture, about the neuroanatomical background of motivation for -and execution of- a specific rewarding behavior, sex. Because this behavior is highly stereotypical, we can investigate which environmental cues are involved during specific phases and what the driving or inhibiting brain projections are. Also, what are some of the new instruments in the neurobiologist's toolkit, when it comes to activating or silencing brain cells, brain areas or connections between areas?
The second lecture was provided by Louk Vanderschuren, who is a professor at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. He explored the definition, social necessity and neurobiology of play behavior. At which age do we see play behavior, which relation does it have to aggression and sexual behavior and how much can we find out about the anatomy using an operant chamber and a drug commonly used for the treatment of ADHD?
After a much needed lunch, we reconvened to see the contribution of James McCutcheon, lecturer at the University of Leicester in the UK. James explained how animals select their food and how their physical needs may drive the motivation towards the selection of certain nutrients. Measuring dopamine release in the brain, he researches how nutrients elicit reward, but also how cues that are associated with food can provoke dopamine release, which is of particular relevance in an environment where we are often confronted with commercials or sweet tasting, but sugarless, foods.
The lecture of Oliver Bosch, professor at the University of Regensburg in Germany, concluded the day. His research subjects are the seemingly extremely gregarious prairie voles. These voles display social monogamy, which makes them very interesting to study social bonds. Oliver started out by explaining how these animals maintain bonds, but then focused more on what happens when social bonds break. There appears to be an important role for corticotropin-releasing hormone on the release of oxytocin in the reward-associated nucleus accumbens.
We thank the guest lecturers for their efforts to immerse our university in neurobiology for a day. But we also like to thank our audience for their attention and their role in productive discussions. We noticed that a large part of the audience attended all lectures, which our lectureres really appreciated. We will certainly try to organize this type of seminar more frequently, so stay tuned.
Below, from left to right:
James McCutcheon, Eelke Snoeren, Oliver Bosch, Louk Vanderschuren
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11.04.2018:
UiT and the Norwegian Research School for Neuroscience
Last week UiT became a full partner of the Norwegian Research School of Neuroscience (NRSN). This means new opportunities for both PhD students and Faculty.
UiT and the Norwegian Research School for Neuroscience
Last week UiT became a full partner of the Norwegian Research School of Neuroscience (NRSN). This means new opportunities for both PhD students and Faculty.
For PhD students: check out the website to see which activities might be interesting for you. Remember that participation is paid for! The annual PhD conference (organized by PhD students), is highly recommended.
For Faculty members at UiT: do you want to organize a workshop, course or summer school? Check the website or contact Eelke.
And while we're at it: please consider becoming a member of the growing Norwegian Neuroscience Society. Members of NNS automatically get a membership of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS), and can register for the biennial FENS meeting at reduced costs.
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10.04.2018:
Professor Witter draws crowd with guest lecture
Menno Witter honored us with a visit and gave a guest lecture on neurobiological research to a highly interested and enthusiastic audience.
Professor Witter draws crowd with guest lecture
Menno Witter honored us with a visit and gave a guest lecture on neurobiological research to a highly interested and enthusiastic audience.
Witter, who works at the Kavli Institute of Systems Neuroscience (NTNU), quickly led us through the past decades of research into the neurobiology of memory and navigation, before showing how this research lead to important pathways towards understanding pathologies of the brain, including Alzheimer's disease.
At first, hilarity ensued when the audience proved to be too numerous to fit inside the lecture room which was booked, but a larger one was quickly found.
We thank Menno for his excellent and very interesting lecture, and we hope to welcome him back sometime in the future.
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19.02.2024:
Symposium 'Food for thought'
We are organizing the symposium 'Food for Thought' on the 14th of March 2024. Come join us!
International and local speakers will present their latest food-related research.