Ivan De Araujo
Professor of Neuroscience
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Majored in Philosophy at the University of Brasilia, followed by postgraduate work in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh. Obtained his Doctorate (DPhil) in Medical Physiology and Imaging at the University of Oxford, under the supervision of Edmund T. Rolls. Performed postdoctoral work in Neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center, where he recorded in awake animals the activity of networks of neurons linked to the digestive tract. From 2007 through 2018, he directed his Neurobiology of Feeding Laboratory at Pierce Labs (Yale University), previous to joining Mount Sinai in August 2018. After describing the taste-independent calorie sensing phenomenon, his main interests revolve around the question of how the body communicates with the central nervous system, in particular gut-brain signaling via the vagus nerve, and the motor control of the aerodigestive tract.
abstract
The Vagus Nerve and the Physiology of Reward
The presentation will discuss recent evidence supporting a role for the gut-brain axis in controlling brain circuits involved in reward, emotion and motivation. It will be argued in particular that gut- innervating vagal sensory neurons function as reward neurons via their brainstem targets that in turn contact dopaminergic brain reward circuits in midbrain. These anatomical and functional circuits open an window into how signals generated by internal body organs give rise to motivated and emotional behaviors.