I study the mechansisms (neuroanatomical, inter- and intra-cellular signaling, etc.) by which hormones and experience alter the brain to coordinately influence affect and social behaviors.

Biography

Teige Sheehan researches neurobiological mechanisms to explain how hormones induce maternal behavior. In the animal kingdom, there is an obvious influence: Female rats are scared of all pups – baby rats – before they give birth to their own litters. In turn, the initiation of maternal experience entails profound alterations in emotional functions. Looking for biological answers to parental behavior in other species may one day lead to information that could help human mothers, such as those suffering from postpartum mood disorders, abusive parents, etc.

He began pursuing this line of basic science – examining molecular changes that occur in the brain as a result of hormones – as an undergraduate and continued as a graduate student in the Department of Psychology at Boston College. For his doctoral thesis work, he worked to identify components of a neural system that prevents the expression of maternal behavior in rats that have never given birth, as well as how the hormonal environment of pregnancy alters their activity, receiving his Ph.D. in 2000.

After receiving his degree, Teige worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Yale School of Medicine's Laboratory of Molecular Psychiatry. There he performed research on the neurobiology of stress and depression, with a focus on molecular mechansisms and genetic contributions involved in regulating behavior. As a faculty member at Brown, he hopes to be able to pursue both lines of questioning into maternal behavior and depression toward answers that hold obvious implications for women who suffer post-partum depression.

Research Description

As a behavioral neuroscientist interested in identifying basic neural mechanisms controlling behavior, I study the neural control of maternal behavior in rats. This model system provides a number of interesting avenues into studying how the mammalian brain processes stressful stimuli to influence social responding, as well as how social interactions influence the brain to modify subsequent behavioral responses to stress. In addition, the experience of parenting permanently alters the brain and behavior, providing a robust, ethological model in which to examine mechanisms related to neural plasticity and learning. From a mechanistic perspective, my research focuses on two general questions: what are the neural circuits that become altered by hormones and experience to influence social behaviors and stress responsiveness, and what are the molecular mechanisms within those circuits that effect those functional changes. To that end, I use a variety of techniques including excitotoxic lesioning, intracranial drug administration, immunocytochemistry, in situ hybridization, western blotting, and viral-mediated gene transfer, in conjunction with behavioral testing.


As the centers for controlling affect and motivated behaviors, the limbic system and hypothalamus are known to have important influences on maternal behavior, with some regions having a stimulatory role while others have an inhibitory role. My work is aimed at identifying how regions such as the amygdala, septum, and medial hypothalamus interact to influence the expression of parental responses. And within these regions, I am studying the contributions different cellular signaling molecules, such as cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases and steroid hormone receptors, make to the relevant changes in neuronal function.

Awards

Phi Beta Kappa
National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) Young Investigator Award

Affiliations

Society for Neuroscience
Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology

Funded Research

National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression Young Investigator Award, "An investigation into the role of neural Pyk2 in stress and depression"
7/02 - 6/04 $ 60,000

National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Research Service Award, Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship, "Antidepressant function of Pyk2 in the lateral septum,"
PHS Grant F32 MH68113-01 4/03 - 6/03 $ 11,777

Teaching Experience

PY104 Hormones and Behavior
PY187 Seminar in Physiological Psychology
PY228 Molecular Basis of Behavior

Selected Publications

• Sheehan, T.P., Chambers, R.A., & Russell, D.S. (2004). Regulation of affect by the lateral septum: implications for neuropsychiatry. Brain Research Reviews. 46:71-117.(2004)
• Sheehan, T.P., Neve, R.L., Duman, R.S., & Russell, D.S. (2003). Antidepressant effect of the calcium-activated tyrosine kinase Pyk2 in the lateral septum. Biological Psychiatry. 54:540-551.(2003)
• Sheehan, T., & Numan, M. (2002). Estrogen, progesterone, and pregnancy termination alter neural activity in brain regions that control maternal behavior in rats. Neuroendocrinology. 75:12-23.(2002)
• Sheehan, T., Paul, M., Amaral, E., Numan, M.J., & Numan, M. (2001). Evidence that the medial amygdala projects to the anterior/ventromedial hypothalamic nuclei to inhibit maternal behavior in rats. Neuroscience. 106:341-356.(2001)
• Sheehan, T.P., & Numan, M. (2000). The septal area and social behavior. In: The Behavioral Neuroscience of the Septal Region. pp. 175 - 209. Numan, R. (Ed.) Springer-Verlag, NY.(2000)
• Sheehan, T.P., Cirrito, J., Numan, M.J., & Numan, M. (2000). Using c-Fos immunocytochemistry to identify forebrain regions that may inhibit maternal behavior in rats. Behavioral Neuroscience. 114:337-52.(2000)
• Numan, M., Roach, J.K., del Cerro, M.C.R., Guillamón, A., Segovia, S., Sheehan, T.P., Numan, M.J. (1999). Expression of intracellular progesterone receptors in rat brain during different reproductive states, and involvement in maternal behavior. Brain Research. 830:358-371.(1999)
• Numan, M., & Sheehan, T.P. (1997). The neuroanatomical circuitry for mammalian maternal behavior. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 807: 101 - 125.(1997)
• Sheehan, T.P., & Numan, M. (1997). Microinjection of the tachykinin neuropeptide K into the ventromedial hypothalamus disrupts the hormonal onset of maternal behavior in female rats. Journal of Neuroendocrinology. 9:677-687.(1997)