Programme

Serve yourself: hypothalamic circuits for state-dependent behavior control

Dr. Anne Petzold, Emmy Noether group leader at the European Neuroscience Institute Göttingen, has been awarded the Du Bois-Reymond Prize of the German Physiological Society for her pioneering work on how internal physiological states shape neural circuits and behavior. The studies which Dr. Petzold performed at the Institute for Systems Physiology at the University of Cologne/University Clinic Cologne, revealed how the brain prioritizes competing needs such as hunger and social interaction - a fundamental question in systems physiology. Using preclinical animal models, Dr. Petzold combines cutting-edge in vivo imaging, circuit manipulation, and behavioral analysis to establish causal links between molecular signals such as leptin and the neural circuits that translate them into behavioral choices. In doing so, she moves the field beyond static models of homeostasis toward a dynamic, state-dependent framework for understanding decision-making under competing physiological demands - a conceptual shift with broad relevance across physiology and neuroscience.