Annegret Falkner

Annegret Falkner
Systems and Circuits Systems and Circuits

Assistant Professor of Neuroscience.

Ph.D., Columbia University, 2012
Faculty
Research: Neural circuits for social decision-making
afalkner@princeton.edu
Research Lab
609-258-7484
152 PNI

Research Focus

Neural circuits for social decision-making

Behavioral choice depends on both current environment and previous experience. For example, the choice to initiate social contact may be influenced not only by who we encounter, but also by the outcomes of past encounters and perceived social rank. Our lab is interested in how social experience and internal state shapes sensory perception and social motivation in order to influence behavioral choice. We focus on understanding the interplay between circuit nodes in the brain’s “social decision-making network”, an evolutionarily conserved suite of brain areas in the hypothalamus, amygdala, and midbrain that process social-sensory information and drive social behaviors. We use genetic tools in mice in tandem with in vivo physiology and optical recording strategies to probe how activity in these networks changes as a function of experience, neuromodulatory, and hormonal influences.   
 

Selected Publications

  • Hashikawa Y, Hashikawa K, Falkner AL, Lin D. (2017) Ventromedial Hypothalamus and the Generation of Aggression. Front Syst Neurosci. 2017 Dec 20;11:94.
  • Zhang, W, Falkner AL, Krishna BS, Goldberg ME, & Miller KD. (2016). Coupling between onedimensional networks reconciles conflicting dynamics in LIP and reveals its recurrent circuitry. Neuron. 2016 Dec 5. S0896-6273(16)30861-3.
  • Falkner AL, Grosenick,L, Davidson, T, Deisseroth, K, & Lin D, (2016). Hypothalamic control of male aggression-seeking behavior. Nature Neuroscience. Apr;19(4):596-604.
  • Falkner, AL, Dollar, P, Perona, P, Anderson DJ, & Lin, D (2014) Decoding the ventromedial hypothalamic neural activity during male mouse aggression. Journal of Neuroscience. 34(17):5971-84.
  • Falkner, A.L, Goldberg, M.E & Krishna, B.S. (2013). Spatial representation and cognitive modulation of response variability in the LIP priority map. Journal of Neuroscience. 33(41):16117- 30.

Attached Files:

PDF icon Annegret Falkner CV