Home Department: Biology
Mentor: Neir Eshel (Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences)

"Investigating How Subdivisions of the Lateral Septum Exert Opposing Control Over Aggression"

Aggression is a universal social behavior with devastating consequences for individuals and society. The neural circuits underpinning this behavior, however, remain poorly understood. Recently, Troy's mentor discovered that the lateral septum contains two regions with opposite effects on aggression. Troy's project will uncover how these subdivisions exert these opposite effects by examining the connectivity between the lateral septum and canonical aggression neurons in the hypothalamus. Troy will use viral tracing methods to identify the downstream targets of each subdivision, and then validate the anatomy by manipulating the projections during aggression. The results may help guide treatments for uncontrolled violence.