Is that time for a Renaissance of ethologically based measures of anxiety?

When: August 31, 2023 at 15:00 CEST 

SPEAKER: Dr. Mu Yang (Columbia University Medical Center, New York, USA) 

Mu Yang is the director of the Mouse Neurobehvaior Core at Columbia University. She was a former graduate student of Robert and Caroline Blanchard well known for their work on introducing ethologically based behavioral assays to the field of preclinical neuropsychiatric research. She did her postdoc with Dr. Jacqueline Crawley at NIH where she published extensively on mouse models of neurodevelopmental disorder. Dr. Yang has pioneered a number of behavioral assays that are based on species-specific behaviors. She is also a strong advocate on scientific integrity and data transparency.  

SUMMARY: In this talk, I will go over the major differences between contemporary, highly automated methods and “old school”, ethologically based methods of measuring behaviors. I will use anxiety- and fear- related behaviors as an examples, to explain evolutionary and ethological factors in designing assays (e.g. the Rat Exposure Test of anxiety). I will also expound on caveats of several mouse models of autism, on their uses and limitations. I will end my talk calling for the community to take advantage of the progress of the AI technology, and bringing back ethologically based behavioral measures.   

Refs: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15135018/ ; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21056591/

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During the webinar, please keep your cameras off and your microphones muted. After the main talk, we have time for discussion where you can participate with your face and voice!