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DTSTART:20240310T070000
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DTSTART:20231105T060000
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UID:event.908248.www.amherst.edu
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240422T160000
SEQUENCE:0
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240422T170000
LOCATION:Science Center\, Kirkpatrick Lecture Hall\, A011
SUMMARY:Biology Monday Seminar \"Lactation hormones\, brains\, and parentin
 g\nbehavior in birds and mammals\"
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:Dr. Kristina Smiley\n\nPost-doctoral Researcher\, UMass Amherst
 \n\nParental care is critical for offspring survival across many diverse\n
 taxa. The transition into parenting involves extraordinary\ncoordination o
 f multiple neural and hormonal systems\, as well as other\nphysiological a
 daptations that occur before and after birth to support\nthe onset of offs
 pring-directed behavior. My research has focused on\nhow prolactin\, a hor
 mone most well-known for its role in lactation\,\npromotes parental behavi
 or in both birds and mammals. I will present\nevidence that shows prolacti
 n is necessary for the onset of parenting\nbehaviors in both male and fema
 le songbirds\, and that\nprolactin-receptors are found in many regions thr
 oughout the avian\nbrain that may support parenting\, such as the medial p
 reoptic area of\nthe hypothalamus. To follow up these findings\, I found t
 hat a specific\npopulation of prolactin-responsive cells in the medial pre
 optic area\nin male mice is critical for paternal behavior. Together\, the
 se\nresults suggest that prolactin has a conserved role in promoting\npare
 ntal behaviors\, likely acting on conserved neural circuitry\nbetween rode
 nts and birds. In addition to the neuroendocrine changes\nthat occur\, sen
 sory cues unique to dependent offspring are also\ncritical for eliciting p
 arental behavior. How these cues are encoded\nby the brain to elicit behav
 ioral responses\, and whether hormones\naffect the perception of sensory i
 nformation from offspring is not\nwell understood. My current work is exam
 ining the neural responses to\noffspring auditory cues (begging calls) in 
 biparental songbirds\, with\nthe prediction that parents will show enhance
 d responsiveness to\nbegging calls\, relative to non-parents\, and these r
 esponses will\nbecome more selective over the developmental period. Finall
 y\, I will\npresent some future directions of my reserch which aims to\nin
 vestigate: 1) how parental hormones affect the perception of sensory\ninfo
 rmation from offspring\, 2) how exposure to offspring sensory cues\ncan al
 ter hormonal state in the parents\, and 3) the neural circuitry\nunderlyin
 g these processes. \n\n \n
DTSTAMP:20240418T211144Z
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BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:event.906938.www.amherst.edu
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240429T140000
SEQUENCE:0
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240429T190000
LOCATION:Science Center\, Kirkpatrick Lecture Hall\, A011
SUMMARY:Biology Honors Thesis Presentations
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:The Biology Department invites you to come listen and support o
 ur\nSenior Honors Thesis students on Monday\, April 29th. Presentations\nw
 ill begin at 2:00 PM in Kirkpatrick Lecture Hall. Refreshments will\nbe se
 rved.\n 
DTSTAMP:20240418T211144Z
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