RESEARCH

Using different models of stress in juvenile and adult rodents, we study how stress across the life span affects anxiety, learning and memory.

Specifically we are interested on how such stress experiences shape local GABAergic interneuron circuits, signaling by modulatory neuropeptides as well as astrocyte-neuron-interactions in the dorsal and ventral hippocampus and its interaction with other structures of the limbic system.

To that end, we utilize biochemical and molecular tools such as high-resolution gene expression analysis with laser microdissection and quantitative PCR. We also use transgenic mouse models and acute pharmacological and viral interventions. We combine these approaches with behavioral tests for emotion and cognition to investigate the contribution of identified molecules and cell types to stress (mal-)adaptation.