CANCELLED-Biomedical Seminar Series

Monday, February 18, Noon – 1 p.m., PBS 114 or Zoom
Let me try that again: how sex influences learning, decision making, and modeling autism will be presented by Dr. Nicola Grissom, Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at University of Minnesota.

Autism spectrum disorders are characterized by seemingly disparate symptoms: repetitive behaviors, restricted interests, and social communication difficulties. Strong evidence suggests these symptoms are united by challenges in learning to predict outcomes. The Grissom Lab has found that mice modeling genetic variants associated with autism also have challenges in learning to predict the positive consequences of their actions, particularly male mice carrying these variants. Using touchscreen tests of decision making and transcriptomic and proteomic approaches, they find that sex-specific cognitive and molecular phenotypes regulate learning to predict and pursue positive consequences, leading to female advantages in early decision making.

Questions? Contact Breezy Tottenhoff.