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Join us LIVE - the NEW IBNS Early Career SeriesWednesday, January 15, 2025 at 4:30PM CET/9:30AM CST (CST-Central Standard Time)The International Behavioral Neuroscience Society is pleased to announce the first speaker in the Samuel Budniok | PhD ResearcherKU Leuven | Learn2Trust lab – Laboratory of Biological Psychology Oxytocin System Manipulation Modulates Social Safety Learning in Mice Abstract: The complex effects of the neurohormone oxytocin (OT) on socio-cognitive phenomena have recently been proposed to be complementary with safety learning, where a stimulus acquires safety-predicting properties when it predicts non-occurrence of an aversive event. OT may enhance saliency of safety stimuli and promote positive social behavior, such as trust, by reducing anxiety and stress. Complementary, OT may reduce the ability to modulate previously learned behaviors based on new, contradicting information. This occurs through its attenuation of prediction error (PE)—the discrepancy between expectations and actual outcomes. In the current study, we stimulated or inhibited (with antagonist cligosiban, CL) the OT system and subjected male and female mice to our social transmission of food preference (STFP) protocol to assess social safety learning. STFP is based on the observation that food neophobia of rodents is attenuated when a conspecific signals the safety of the food. We used safe food preference as putative murine homologue of human trust acquisition, and modeled trust violation (PE) using lithium chloride (LiCl)-induced food aversion after social interaction. In males, results revealed that OT enhanced trust acquisition, whereas both OT and its antagonist CL similarly blocked trust violation learning. None of the manipulations affected female behavior. Our findings highlight the complexities of OT’s role in social behavior, emphasizing caution in therapeutic manipulations of this system.
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CALL for SPEAKERS 2025 IBNS Early Career Series This speaking opportunity is an excellent platform for emerging scientists in the field of behavioral neuroscience to share their research and insights. By featuring a late-stage PhD student or postdoctoral researcher who is a member of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society (IBNS), the event aims to spotlight the innovative work being conducted by early-career researchers (ECRs). The format allows the speaker to deliver a comprehensive 30-minute presentation of their research findings, offering a deep dive into their study's objectives, methodology, and results. Following this, a 5-minute introspection segment provides a reflective space for the speaker to discuss the nuances of their research approach, analyze their data critically, and outline prospective future directions. This reflection not only enriches the audience's understanding but also demonstrates the speaker's analytical skills and foresight. The session will conclude with a 10-15 minute Q&A, fostering an interactive dialogue between the presenter and the audience. This engagement is invaluable, as it not only enhances the speaker’s communication skills but also strengthens their professional network within the IBNS community.
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Your abstract should clearly articulate your research question and approach, the interpretation of your findings and their implications, the innovativeness and impact of these findings, and should incorporate behavior. For the diversity statement, you should describe ways in which you have made efforts or plan to make future efforts to promote diversity and inclusion, with regards to culture, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, national origin, physical or mental difference, politics, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and/or subculture, as described in the IBNS Diversity Statement. A statement evaluated as Outstanding would include specific examples (e.g. partnering organizations, collaborators, and/or applicant led-initiatives/programs) of things that have been done or being planned, as well as a clear explanation how these examples promote diversity and inclusion within the field of behavioral neuroscience. Your diversity statement will remain private among the few members reviewing the applications. Nothing in the diversity statement will be made public.
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