Marnie Halpern
Dartmouth College, NH·Neuroscience
The left and right halves of the brain are not perfect mirror images, and some circuits process information differently on each side. One such circuit is the habenulo-interpeduncular pathway, a relay that carries signals from the forebrain to the midbrain in all vertebrates.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Genetics
Biology
- Topics
habenula
interpeduncular nucleus
habenulo-interpeduncular pathway
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Nov 2027
What they work on
- Identify all neuronal populations of the habenulo-interpeduncular pathway, the relay linking the dorsal habenula to the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN), in zebrafish using genetic and transgenic tools.
- Determine which groups of habenular and IPN neurons respond to negative or aversive cues, combining imaging and behavioral approaches in zebrafish.
- Map the inputs that feed into the left and right dorsal habenula and the downstream targets of the pathway, to define the full circuit and its connectivity.
- Examine how differences between left- and right-side habenular neurons lead to different processing of information and appropriate behavioral responses such as fear and anxiety.
More about the research
It has been linked to sleep, fear and anxiety, pain, learning, motivation, feeding, reward, and reproduction. It has also been linked to mood disorders and addiction, including nicotine dependence and withdrawal. Despite this wide reach, little is known about which nerve cells make up the pathway or exactly how they connect.
Why it matters
This forebrain-to-midbrain pathway has been implicated in depression, schizophrenia, and addiction, including nicotine dependence. Learning how its neuron types connect, and how the left and right sides differ, could help explain how the circuit supports anxiety, fear, reward, and decision making. That knowledge could eventually inform how these processes go wrong in neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Nanette M Nascone-Yoder
North Carolina State University, NC·Biology
Identify which left-right asymmetries in the endoderm, mesoderm and extracellular matrix are required for stomach curvature, using tissue- and side-specific gene function tests and mechanical measurements in frog embryos.
Philip Kragel
Emory University, GA·Neuroscience
Evaluate whether different superior colliculus pathways serve distinct functions, using machine learning models of brain connectivity while people perform avoidance learning, spatial attention and aversive-viewing tasks during fMRI.
Marcus Weera
Tufts University, MA·Neuroscience·Early-career
Test whether Avoider rats, which persistently avoid a predator odor-paired context, show blunted activation of lateral habenula-projecting lateral hypothalamus neurons after an aversive dose of alcohol, measured by Fos immunohistochemistry and in vivo fiber photometry.
The school
Dartmouth College: 16 labs on PI Pages, $418M a year on research, 104 research doctorates a year.
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