Tionna Ouellette

Research/Areas of Interest

My thesis work aims to understand what brain regions integrate with the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus to produce behaviors related to food intake. To do this, I utilize mouse strains with fluorescent activity reporters to investigate long range connectivity to the hypothalamus as well as microscale connections within the arcuate nucleus. After developing models of neural connectivity patterns, I can then ask how these connections change with the type of behavior being performed, and to what degree diet affects those connections.