Azevedo Laboratory

Dr. Azevedo’s Laboratory seeks to understand how emotional experiences, such as trauma or reward, are processed and integrated in the brain. Our main goal is to determine the circuit, cellular and molecular mechanisms by which emotions control behavior and physiology. Ultimately, we aim to understand and define novel molecular targets involved in psychiatric diseases, such as Eating Disorders, PTSD, and Anxiety. Using the mouse limbic system as our primary model, our laboratory employs a combination of behavioral, molecular, anatomical, and imaging tools.

Research Focus:
The Azevedo Lab explores circuit and molecular mechanisms that control innate behaviors, such as feeding and foraging. By understanding how the brain integrates emotional experience and control behavior, we can identify key targets to develop better therapeutic approaches to treat Eating Disorders, Anxiety, and PTSD. The lab utilizes multidisciplinary approaches such as animal behavior, in vivo imaging using calcium and neuropeptide receptor-based optical sensors imaging, biochemistry, and transcriptomics to address these important topics in neuroscience.

How does our brain integrate emotional experiences?
In our daily lives, emotions guide our behaviors. When we feel sad or scared, we look for comfort. When we feel happy, we want to sing and dance. Specific regions of our brain can integrate multimodal emotional experiences with context and relay this information to downstream areas that regulate homeostasis and/or motor control. In the lab, we use a variety of tools to determine:
1) the specific neuronal populations that can encode salient non-spatial (i.e. predator odor) and spatial (i.e. place) information.
2) the circuit mechanism by which these neurons control innate behaviors, such as feeding, locomotion, and reward-seeking.

Neural substrates of psychological stress
Psychological stress is defined as a specific relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised by the person as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well-being (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). Higher-order limbic structures are known to process psychological stress and integrate this information downstream to areas such as the hypothalamus and the brainstem, areas involved in the HPA axis control and that are connected to the spinal cord to regulate the sympathetic response to stress. In the lab, we model mice with acute and chronic stress using predator cues, such as fox odor. Using this ethologically-relevant model we use molecular and genetic approaches to provide insights into the central neural pathways that detect and integrate psychological stress. We also investigate how acute and chronic stress affects feeding behavior and physiology.

Neurobiology of Eating Disorders
ED have the highest mortality rate among all psychiatric disorders and are characterized by maladaptive eating behaviors (i.e. voluntary restriction) that often co-occur with anxiety and depression. In over 70% of ED cases, stress precedes maladaptive eating, yet the basic mechanisms involved in stress integration by the brain and the effects of stress in the regulation of feeding are unclear. In the lab we aim to understand the neural basis of maladaptive eating using Anorexia Nervosa models and Chronic Stress models.


Team:
Director: Estefania Azevedo, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor


Azevedo Laboratory Recent Publications (2020-present):
AZEVEDO EP, Tan B, Pomeranz LE, Fetcho RN, Doerig KR, Scheneeberger M, Liston C, Friedman J and Stern SA. A limbic circuit selectively linking active escape to food suppression. eLife. 2020. 9:e58894. doi: 10.7554/eLife.58894.

AZEVEDO EP, Pomeranz L, Cheng J, Scheneeberger M, Vaughan R, Stern SA, Tan B, Greengard P and Friedman J. A Role of Drd2 Hippocampal neurons in context-dependent food intake. Neuron. 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.03.011.

AZEVEDO EP, Ivan VJ, Friedman JM, Stern SA. Higher-Order Inputs Involved in Appetite Control. Biol Psychiatry. 2021 Jul 24:S0006-3223(21)01468-2. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.07.015. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34593204.

Bhatti DL, Medrihan L, Chen MX, Jin J, McCabe K, Wang W, AZEVEDO EP, Ledo J, Kim Y. Molecular and cellular adaptations in hippocampal parvalbumin neurons mediate behavioral responses to chronic social stress. bioRxiv; 2021. DOI: 10.1101/2021.09.14.459024.

Stern SA, AZEVEDO EP, Pomeranz L, Doerig K and Friedman J. Top-down control of conditioned overconsumption is mediated by insular cortex Nos1 neurons. Cell Metabolism. 2021. Online. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2021.03.001

For more information on the work we do in our lab: https://www.azevedolab.com/