Genes & Circuits: Mice & Flies' Emotional Behavior: David J. Anderson

Please Note: This event was digitally recorded. Due to unpublished material shown in the presentation, release of this lecture on DVD and availability for viewing on the Caltech Theater site will be delayed. Many past Watson Lectures are available for viewing online on the Caltech Theater site, and are available for purchase: DVD Order Form (PDF)

Emotions are fundamental to normal and abnormal human behavior, but we know relatively little about the genes and brain circuits that control them. Recent progress in mapping the "molecular landscape" of the brain has opened up the possibility of using genes to mark, map and functionally manipulate highly specific brain regions or groups of neurons, to determine their roles in emotional behavior. Examples of how this approach can be applied in mice to the study of fear, a basic emotion, will be presented.

Fruit flies represent a more rapid, inexpensive and powerful system to apply similar genetic approaches to the dissection of neural circuits, but whether these insects exhibit behaviors that could be considered "emotional" is not clear. Preliminary investigations into this challenging problem will be discussed.

David J. Anderson is the Roger W. Sperry Professor of Biology at Caltech, and an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

David J. Anderson

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