Anne Petzold

University of Cologne | UOC · Institute of Systems Physiology

Animals continuously weigh hunger and thirst against competing needs, such as social contact and mating, according to state and opportunity. Yet neuronal mechanisms of sensing and ranking nutritional needs remain poorly understood. Here, combining calcium imaging in freely behaving mice, optogenetics, and chemogenetics, we show that two neuronal po...

Cholinergic neurons of the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) are most active during the waking state. Their activation is deemed to cause a switch in the global brain activity from sleep to wakefulness, while their sustained discharge may contribute to upholding the waking state and enhancing arousal. Similarly, non-cholinergic PPN neurons are respons...

Cniderians are considered to be the first organisms to develop a Nervous System (Watanabe 2009, Anderson 2004) that qualifies for a Central Nervous System (CNS, Mackie 2004). In Cubomedusae, the CNS processes the main part of visual input and concordant output (Garm et al. 2007b). Behavior of T. cystophora is visually guided by four sets of morpholog...

A series of studies point to a prominent role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in long-term neural plasticity (LTP), especially in hippocampus and amygdala. BDNF impacts on behavioral tasks that rely on these brain structures, such as Morris Water Maze (MWM) and Fear Conditioning. BDNF and its receptor, TrkB, reach highest levels in hip...