Séminaire de Cynthia Rombaut- SONIC team

Friday 1st December 2023 at 14:30, Henri Gastaut meeting room

Cynthia Rombaut- SONIC team

Manipulating maternal behavior to decipher the molecular underpinnings of social behavior and vulnerability to stress

Abstract: In mammals, brain development is far from being complete at birth. Post-natal environment plays a crucial role in shaping immature neuronal networks and therefore brain construction. It is therefore not surprising that traumatic events during infancy-childhood result in far-reaching consequences on brain function and represent the most important risk factor for psychopathology. It is currently well-etablished that environmental influences on brain development are largely mediated by epigenetic mechanisms. Among them, microRNAs, a class of short non-coding RNAs, have attracted much interest. During the early post-natal life, the mother provides not only feeding but also the essential of the newborn social context. Sensory inputs during this period are critical for attachment and the optimal development of most brain functions. During my PhD project, I use mouse models to further understand how altering maternal care levels during this critical time window affected microRNAs in specific brain regions and, ultimately, the acquisition of proper social functions. In addition, we were also interested in investigating how early social context provided by the mother could result in different brain trajectories setting up the stage for increased susceptibility/resilience to the deleterious effects of chronic stress at adulthood. Overall, my work seeks to identity molecular factors involved in the regulation of precise social behavior that could be used for further investigating the neurobiological basis of such functions as well as potential therapeutic targets for psychiatric diseases.