Position Title
Associate Professor
- Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior
Research Interests
The response to a stimulus or a context varies between individuals and across time and depends on internal state, prior experience and expectations. How are expectations formed, communicated and interpreted in the brain to modulate emotional and motivated behavior? How do expectations change with learning? To answer these question, my lab studies long-range neural networks between the cerebellum, the "prediction machine" of the brain, and emotional and reward centers. Our toolbox includes transgenic mice, ex vivo and in vivo electrophysiology, optogenetics, advanced imaging, single cell RNA sequencing and animal behavior assays. With these tools at hand, we aim to bridge the knowledge gap between synaptic, cellular and circuit levels of analysis.
Graduate Program Affiliations
- B.A. in Psychology, The American College of Greece
- Ph.D. in Neuroscience, University of Texas, Houston
- Postdoc in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School
- Wang CC, Weyrer C, Fioravante D, Kaeser PS, Regehr WG. (2021) Presynaptic short-term plasticity persists in the absence of PKC phosphorylation of Munc18-1. J Neurosci. Jul 21:JN-RM-0347-21. Online ahead of print. PMID: 34290081. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0347-21.2021.
- D’Ambra, A., Jung, S.J., Ganesan, S., Antzoulatos*, E., Fioravante*, D. (2020) Cerebellar Activation Bidirectionally Regulates Nucleus Accumbens Shell and Core. BioRxiv 2020.09.28.283952; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.28.283952 *equal senior authors.
- Graham, J., D’Ambra, A., Jung, S,J., Vishwakarma, N., Venkatesh, R., Parigi, A., Antzoulatos, E., Fioravante*, D., Wiltgen*, B.J. (2020). Activation of ventral CA1 to basolateral amygdala-projecting neurons disrupts contextual fear memory retrieval. BioRxiv 2020.06.29.178970; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.29.178970. *equal senior authors.
- Pannoni, K., Sanculi, D., […], Antzoulatos, E., Fioravante, D., Ellisman, M., DeBelllo, W. (2019) Toric spines at a site of learning. eNeuro 7 (1) ENEURO.0197-19.2019; DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0197-19.2019.
- Wang CC, Weyrer C, Paturu M, Fioravante D, Regehr WG. (2016) Calcium-dependent protein kinase C is not required for post-tetanic potentiation at the hippocampal CA3 to CA1 synapse. J Neurosci. 36: 6393-6402. PubMed PMID: 27307229.