Dr. Christopher Vaaga is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University. Dr. Vaaga started his research lab in 2022, after completing his graduate training at the Vollum Institute at the Oregon Health and Science University and postdoctoral training at Northwestern University. His research focuses on elucidating the neural circuit mechanisms underlying ethologically relevant behaviors, including understanding how these circuits are disrupted in various disorders. Specifically, his lab is examining the circuitry underlying innate fear responses, using a highly integrative approach spanning cellular intrinsic biophysics, in vitro slice electrophysiology, in vivo circuit manipulation and neural recording, viral circuit mapping, as well as behavioral analysis of fear responses. In this webinar, Dr. Vaaga will outline his lab’s recent efforts to understand how the cerebellum contributes to innate fear processing through direct synaptic interactions in the periaqueductal gray, a midbrain region essential for driving innate fear responses. He will then present new data from the lab characterizing important differences in the synaptic dynamics of two circuits within the periaqueductal gray.

In this webinar, Dr. Vaaga will:

  1. Articulate the evidence supporting the role of the cerebellum in modulating innate fear circuits through synaptic interactions in the vlPAG.
  2. Describe how innate fear responses change with repeated exposure and identify the environmental and physiological factors that impact this process.
  3. Outline the differences in synaptic dynamics in the ventrolateral and dorsomedial periaqueductal gray.