Past Webinar: Neural Circuits of Survival: How the Brain Orchestrates Defensive Behavior

Neural Circuits of Survival: How the Brain Orchestrates Defensive Behavior

11 AM EDT, June 25, 2025

Jonathan P. Fadok, Ph.D. earned his doctorate in Neurobiology and Behavior from the University of Washington and completed postdoctoral training at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Switzerland. His lab uses advanced neuroscience techniques—including in vivo recording of brain activity, optogenetics, calcium imaging, and viral circuit tracing—alongside behavioral assays to study how specific brain regions and pathways shape emotional responses.

A major focus of his research is understanding how animals rapidly switch between different defensive states, such as freezing and fleeing. Recently, his team identified a novel brain pathway—from the dorsal peduncular cortex to the amygdala—that plays a key role in promoting flight behavior during threat. This research offers new insights into how top-down control from the cortex can regulate survival behaviors and may help inform treatments for anxiety and trauma-related disorders.

Creative Biolabs has invited Dr. Jonathan P. Fadok to walk us through neural circuits of survival: how the brain orchestrates defensive behavior.

In this webinar, we will explore and review the following key points:

• Overview of innate and learned defensive responses: freezing, flight, and their neural underpinnings
• Introduction to the conditioned flight model and behavioral state transitions
• Central amygdala microcircuits and their role in defensive action selection
• Discovery of a top-down cortico-amygdala pathway from the dorsal peduncular cortex
• Functional relevance of downstream targets: PAG and RRF contributions to threat modulation
• Broader implications for understanding emotional regulation and trauma-related disorders

Webinar Recording

Speaker

Jonathan P. Fadok, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology at Tulane University
Faculty member of the Tulane Brain Institute
Research Neuroscientist at the Southeast
Louisiana Veterans Health Care System

Jonathan P. Fadok, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Tulane University and a faculty member of the Tulane Brain Institute. He also serves as a Research Neuroscientist at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System. His research explores how the brain controls responses to threat and stress, with a focus on the neural circuits underlying fear, anxiety, and trauma-related behaviors.

Dr. Fadok leads several federally funded projects, including grants from the NIH and the Department of Veterans Affairs, and has received multiple honors for his work, including the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation’s Young Investigator Award and Tulane’s Early Career Professor Award.