Bachelor's at Ciências Biológicas - Modalidade Médica from Universidade Federal de São Paulo (2002), master's at Psychiatry from Universidade Federal de São Paulo (2005) and doctorate at Anatomy from Universidade de São Paulo (2010) where is now Assistant Professor (2014). Has experience in Morphology, focusing on Functional Neuroanatomy, acting on the following subjects: neural basis of social aggressive and defensive behaviors. (Source: Lattes Curriculum)
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Understanding neural circuits is more than knowing the pattern of projections and the chemical identity of a certain brain area. Sometimes neurons of the same nucleus and chemical identity project to different targets establishing parallel circuits that may be important to organize different aspects of the same behavior. A way to disentangle these parallel circuits is to look at developme…
Social stress is the physiological and psychological outcome after social conflicts. In rats, previous studies have showed that the dorsal premammillary nucleus of the hypothalamus (PMD) is crucial for organizing the defensive behaviors expressed during social threats (Motta et al., 2009). Preliminary data indicates that PMD lesions prevents corticosterone release under a dominant rat at…
Social behaviors are strategies to ensure the group's stability and survival of the species and, in that sense, social defense has an important role in maintaining the integrity of both the individual and the group. Understanding how the brain perceives the stimuli, processes it and choose the best behavioral response is one of the key issues in Neuroscience, and the study of social defen…
Social relationships directly influence the survival and reproduction of species, with frequent disputes over resources in intraspecific contexts. In this sense, interactions between males often result in relationships of dominance and subordination, which can be studied using the resident-intruder paradigm. The model consists of placing an intruder in a box housing a conspecific, where o…
The tuberal nucleus (nTU) and the ventrolateral portion of the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (VMHvl) participateof the female sexual and maternal aggression behaviors, which present themselves asantagonistic responses to an unknown male depending on the reproductive phase of the female. Several works have shown that neuronal subtypes in VMHvl, estrogen and progesterone responsi…
Disputes over resources and territory involving conspecifics are common in nature. In general, they cause significant negative consequences for both sides, so it is important to recognize the risk of conflicts with the rival for the best position to be taken. In these situations, defense behaviors such as flight, fight and freezing may be the most adequate survival strategy for the indivi…
The hypothalamus is responsible for organizing motivated behaviors, such as sexual behavior. To organize this behavior, the hypothalamus recruits the medial preoptic nucleus (MPN), the ventral premammillary nucleus (PMv), the tuberal nucleus (TU) and the ventrolateral portion of the ventromedial nucleus (VMHvl). In these nuclei, a sexual dimorphism is noticed between males and females, fo…
During agonistic encounters between rodents, an important social cue for defense expression is olfactory. Identifying the dominant conspecific and performing the defensive behavior properly is decisive for the individual's survival. In nature, individuals face conspecific dominants throughout their lives. Thus, although it is an innate type of behavior, the social defense can be shaped an…
In social defeat, the environment is a determining variable for the defensive strategy to be developed. The environment is composed of elements such as escape routes, hiding places, distance to the threat and, the presence of physical and/or psychological limits. Understanding how different brain structures processing this information, associating it with other stimuli - such as the type …
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Social defense is expressed when the source of threat is a conspecific. But every time someone faces such a threat, it changes the way this animal perceives and reacts to conspecifics. In mice, several re-exposures to social defeat are commonly used as animal model for depression, leading, for instance, to social aversion and less interest in palatable food (anhedonia). Our laboratory stu…
During agonistic encounters among rodents, an important social cue for the expression of defense is the olfactory cues. Identifying the dominant conspecific and executing the defensive behavior appropriately is decisive for the survival of the individual. Regarding olfactory cues, pheromones are essential molecules for transmitting information about a conspecific, which are processed by t…
Microendoscopic calcium imaging is a technique that allows the monitoring of neural activity in freely moving animals, making it possible to establish a direct relationship between the activity of a specific region of the brain and animal behaviour. This technique is based on recording the intracellular concentration of Ca2+ fluctuation in neurons expressing genetically encoded indicators…
In mice chronic social defeat leads to a behavioral and physiological condition that resembles depressive states in human patients, including physiological dysfunction, anhedonia and motivational deficits. Lesions in the dorsal premammillary nucleus of the hypothalamus disrupt behavioral and neuroendocrine responses of animals exposed to one social defeat. In this project, we aim to inves…
| 1 / 1 | Ongoing research grants |
| 4 / 3 | Completed research grants |
| 3 / 3 | Ongoing scholarships in Brazil |
| 17 / 17 | Completed scholarships in Brazil |
| 2 / 2 | Ongoing scholarships abroad |
| 2 / 2 | Completed scholarships abroad |
| 29 / 28 | All research grants and scholarships |
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CV Lattes
ORCID