Alessandro Contestabile

The paper establishes a social stress-based conditioning protocol in mice and shows how individual behavioral traits influence different stages of context processing.

The paper identifies Anxa1+ dopamine neurons as vulnerable in prodromal Parkinson's disease, linking their dysfunction to bradykinesia and procedural motor learning impairments.

The paper identifies a striosomal ACB projection to the Esr1+ LHA-LHb pathway that drives compulsive seeking behaviors through aversive signaling.

This study shows that social isolation during adolescence in mice affects social behavior and neural activity, with effects mediated by oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus.

This study identifies Sst+ GPi neurons that provide feedback to basal ganglia nodes and influence behavioral flexibility during learning.

This study identifies a Superior Colliculus to VTA neural pathway that controls orienting responses to conspecifics by activating specific dopamine neurons.

The paper shows that inhibiting TRPV4 rescues social and circuit deficits in Shank3 mutant mice induced by inflammation.

This study investigates the role of Shank3 in anxiety behaviors by downregulating it in the BNST during adolescence and shows its impact on synaptic plasticity and anxiety-related behaviors.

This paper shows that SHANK3 downregulation in the VTA speeds up the extinction of contextual associations formed through social interaction in a CPP paradigm.