James D. Rose
Ph.D., Indiana University
Professor, Department of Zoology and Physiology
Participating faculty member of the Interdiciplinary Ph.D. Program in Neuroscience and Ph.D. Program in Reproductive Biology
Director, National Institutes of Health Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Cellular Signaling
The research in my laboratory is highly diverse, but primarily focused on neural actions of steroid and neuropeptide hormones related to stress and reproductive behavior. Our current research focuses on courtship clasping behavior by male roughskin newts (Taricha granulosa). This simple behavior is reliably controlled by sensory stimuli and rapid, powerful effects of diverse hormones like corticosterone and vasotocin. In addition, the comparative simplicity of this amphibian’s nervous system make it highly amenable to analyses of neuronal mechanisms controlling clasping. One of our most significant discoveries is that rapid neurophysiological and behavioral actions of corticosterone and vasotocin are very time and context dependent, such that exposure of the brain to vasotocin reverses the neurobehavioral actions of the stress steroid corticosterone.
Our research employs diverse methods to investigate the behavior-controlling actions of these hormones, including recording from single neurons in the brains of freely behaving newts and the use of fluorescently-labeled hormones to identify the target neurons for hormone action. The goal of these studies is an elucidation of the network of clasp-controlling neurons and identification of hormone-induced functional changes in these neurons that cause the behavioral effects of stress hormones.
Additional, current research interests include studies of comparative brain and behavioral function in vertebrates and the neural basis of consciousness. Other recent lines of research have included studies in trout and salmon of the neurotoxic actions of water contaminants and neural effects of whirling disease parasites.