Department of Chemitry
Dopaminergic control of social novelty recognition by drd1 expression in hippocampal CA2 pyramidal neurons.
Social memory is one of the crucial abilities for animal survival. On the basis of social memory, the animal decides how to associate with surrounding social stimulus. As a perspective of previous study, it is considered that animal perceives social stimuli as a reward. In the brain, dopamine is a crucial neuromodulator for mediating reward-associated response. Furthermore, there are several evidences of the relation between dopamine reward circuit and social interaction. On the basis of this relation, I am going to investigate how dopamine contributes to social memory formation.