New York neuroscientist to share research as guest lecturer

Behavioural scientist Professor Dayu Lin, of the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, is this year's University of Otago Sir John Eccles guest lecturer.

Dayu will present the latest findings of her research into how aggression can switch on and off in the brain, specifically how sensory information is communicated to trigger such behaviours.

The lecture - on November 18 - is the Department of Physiology's most prestigious event.

Dayu Lin

Professor John Eccles, a neurophysiologist and former Head of Physiology at Otago, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1963 for his work on the synapse. As part of his legacy, the Department of Physiology invites a high-profile international speaker each year to give this lecture, recognising research excellence.

Lecture organiser Dr Joon Kim is looking forward to hearing about Dayu's cutting-edge neuroscience techniques.

"Since initiating an attack requires no explicit learning, the neural circuit underlying aggression is believed to be genetically and developmentally hardwired.

"But despite being innate, aggression can be modified. We know it's influenced by a wide variety of experiences, particularly winning and losing previous encounters - winning can lead to an increased tendency to fight while losing leads to flight in future encounters," he says.

Dayu's studies looking at the influence of hormones such as testosterone or oestrogens in these neural circuits have identified remarkable behavioural transformations - changing docile mice into aggressors, bullies into lovers, and even instilling parental instincts in mice that previously showed no inclination to care for their young.

"She is widely published in high-ranking journals including Nature, Cell, and Science, so we're excited that she is able to come to Dunedin to talk to us about what these discoveries will mean."

The Sir John Eccles Lecture will be held from 1-2pm on Monday, 18 November at the Hercus D'Ath Lecture Theatre.

Dayu will also be presenting a separate lecture for the annual Centre for Neuroendocrinology in Dunedin on 14 November, on recent findings on the neural circuit mechanisms supporting these drastic behaviour changes during motherhood.

Kōrero by Claire Grant, Communications Advisor, School of Biomedical Sciences

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