Event Details:
Join us at Gunn Rotunda in the Stanford Neurosciences Building to learn about the latest cutting-edge, cross-disciplinary brain research, from biochemistry to behavior and beyond
Join the speaker for coffee, cookies, and conversation before the talk, starting at 11:45am.
Peripheral and central regulations of body fluid balance
Maintaining water-salt balance is crucial for all animal species, and the brain is responsible for achieving this function through constant monitoring of the body fluid status and inducing appropriate ingestive behaviors. However, the central mechanisms for sensing internal fluid balance remain poorly understood. Recently, we demonstrated, through transcriptomic and genetic methods, that fore- and hindbrain interoceptive circuits are involved in detecting water and salt deficits and has causal roles in water/salt appetites. These findings provide a unique opportunity to investigate internal-state-sensing with cell-type-specific resolution. In this talk, I will show the combinatorial neural coding of distinct fluid need states. I will also discuss how individual neuron types mediate the behavioral responses toward water and salt.
Yuki Oka, Ph.D.
California Institute of Technology
Dr. Yuki Oka completed his graduate and postdoctoral studies at University of Tokyo and, UCSD and Columbia University by studying peripheral sensory systems. Dr. Oka is now a Professor at California Institute of Technology since 2015, where he is researching how individual neural populations interact by focusing on body fluid regulation. He aims to understand how internal need signals (thirst or sodium craving) are translated into behavioral outputs (drinking or salt intake) by interrogating the molecular and functional organization of neural circuits.
Hosted by - Xiaoke Chen, Ph.D. (Xiaoke Chen Lab)
About the Wu Tsai Neuro Seminar Series
The Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute seminar series brings together the Stanford neuroscience community to discuss cutting-edge, cross-disciplinary brain research, from biochemistry to behavior and beyond.
Topics include new discoveries in fundamental neurobiology; advances in human and translational neuroscience; insights from computational and theoretical neuroscience; and the development of novel research technologies and neuro-engineering breakthroughs.
Unless otherwise noted, seminars are held Thursdays at 12:00 noon PT.