Neuroscience First Year Presentation: Jeffy Jackson

About this event

Please join us

Tuesday, November 24, 2026

4:30pm – 5:00pm CST

NSERL 3.204

for a First Year Presentation by

Jeffy Jackson

University of Texas at Dallas

Chemogenetic Activation of Ventral Tegmental Area Dopamine Neurons

Rescues Adversity-Induced Maternal Motivation Deficits.

Maternal behavior relies on mesolimbic dopamine signaling to assign reinforcing value to infant cues and drive motivated caregiving behaviors, but environmental adversity can disrupt these processes. Using a rodent model of postpartum scarcity-adversity, I aimed to understand the functional relevance of VTA DA neuron activity and its relation to impairments in motivated maternal behavior during adaptive (control) and maladaptive (scarcity-adversity) conditions through bidirectional chemogenetic manipulations. My findings suggest that chemogenetic activation of VTA dopamine neurons rescues adversity-induced impairments in pup retrieval, supporting a causal role for VTA dopamine signaling in motivated maternal behavior.

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