1. Research Background:

Our Neuronal Circuits and Behavior group studies neuronal circuits regulating different aspects of innate behaviors, including feeding-related behaviors, social behaviors, and voluntary locomotion, as well as learning. The overall goal of our group is to unravel functions of hypothalamic neuronal circuits related to health, disease and healthy aging. We focus on decoding neuronal mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disorders, associated with dysfunctions of hypothalamus, including eating disorders. To reveal and decode the influence of various neuronal groups and their inputs on innate behaviors, we combine state-of-the-art technologies, including multisite high-density neuronal recordings in transgenic behaving mice, calcium imaging, optogenetics, chemogenetics and novel computational and engineering approaches. 

2. Research questions addresses by the group:

Our lab has a long-standing focus on the neural circuits underlying innate behaviors, including social interactions (Petzold et al., Cell Metab 2023), feeding (Carus-Cadavieco et al., Nature 2017; Chen et al., Nature Neurosci 2024; Figge-Schlensok et al., Nature Neurosci 2025), arousal (Herrera et al., Nature Neurosci 2016), and locomotion (Bender et al., Nature Comm. 2015). We aim to understand the changes in neuronal activity in the lateral hypothalamus during aging, and how these changes underlie metabolic and sleep disorders that represent major health problems in the elderly population. We further investigate changes of neuronal circuitries involved in the regulation of innate behaviors in aging and identify the neuronal groups and neural dynamics that underlie these changes, and study consequences of optogenetically restored physiological signaling within hypothalamic groups. Further, we study functions of neural circuits in the translation of cognitive- and reward-related information to the hypothalamus during innate behaviors, and analyzing how this translation changes in the context of disease as well as during healthy aging.

3. Possible projects:

Leptin links the body’s energy stores to the brain and thereby influences feeding, metabolism, stress responses, and reproductive function. Our recent work identified leptin receptor-expressing neurons in the lateral hypothalamus as a key neuronal population that enables animals to flexibly balance competing behavioral needs. We further found that leptin’s effects on feeding and sociosexual behavior differ between males and females. Leptin receptor-expressing lateral hypothalamic neurons also promote adaptive behavior under stress and counteract maladaptive responses in a model of anorexia nervosa.

This project will investigate how aging reshapes leptin-sensitive hypothalamic circuits in a sex-dependent manner. We will determine how leptin responsiveness, neuronal activity, and the regulation of feeding, anxiety-related, social, and other motivated behaviors change from young adulthood through reproductive and advanced aging in male and female mice. Combining behavioral analyses with in vivo recordings, cell-type-specific circuit manipulations, and molecular approaches, we aim to identify mechanisms through which age and sex interact to alter leptin sensitivity. Ultimately, this work will establish how changes in endocrine-brain communication contribute to age-related metabolic and behavioral dysfunction and may reveal mechanisms that support resilience and healthy aging.

4. Applied Methods and model organisms:

Multisite high-density neuronal recordings, calcium imaging, optogenetics in behaving mice.

5. Desirable skills and qualifications:

Optimism and curiosity.

6. References:

Figge-Schlensok R*, Petzold A*, Hugger N, Bakhareva A, Abdallah AT, Wissing C, Witt MY, Awad DE,  Korotkova T (2025). A lateral hypothalamic neuronal population expressing leptin receptors counteracts anxiety to enable adaptive behavioral responses. Nature Neuroscience, 28, 2262–2272. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-025-02078-y. 

Chen C*, Altafi M*, Corbu M, Trenk A, Munkhof H, Weineck K, Bender F, Carus-Cadavieco M, Bakhareva A, Korotkova T*^§, Ponomarenko A*^§ (2024). The dynamic state of a prefrontal-hypothalamic-midbrain circuit commands behavioral transitions. Nature Neurosci 27, 952–963. doi: 10.1038/s41593-024-01598-3.

Petzold A, van den Munkhof HE, Figge-Schlensok R, Korotkova T. Complementary lateral hypothalamic populations resist hunger pressure to balance nutritional and social needs (2023). Cell Metabolism 35, 1-16. Featured in Ledford H. Sex, food or water? How mice decide. Nature News, Nature. 2023 Feb 23. doi: 10.1038/d41586-023-00521-3.

Carus-Cadavieco M, Gorbati M, Ye L, Bender F, van der Veldt S, Kosse C, Börgers C, Lee SY, Ramakrishnan C, Hu Y, Denisova N, Ramm F, Volitaki E, Burdakov D, Deisseroth K, Ponomarenko A*§, Korotkova T*§ (2017). Gamma oscillations organize top-down signaling to hypothalamus and enable food seeking. Nature, 542(7640):232-236.

Herrera CG, Carus-Cadavieco M, Jego S, Ponomarenko A, Korotkova T, Adamantidis A (2016). Hypothalamic feed-forward inhibition of thalamocortical network controls arousal and consciousness. Nature Neuroscience, 19(2):290-8.