Researcher Profile
Wataru Inoue
Assistant Professor
Department(s):
Physiology & Pharmacology
Publications:
Research Areas
Profile
The goal of Wataru Inoue's research is to understand the effects of stress on the functioning of the brain, and consequently behaviour. His lab uses a multidisciplinary approach including patch clamp electrophysiology, optogenetics, biochemical & histological analysis, and behavioral & physiological manipulations in order to understand molecular mechanisms of stress.
Stress causes an immediate physiological and psychological response and promotes associative learning that makes lasting changes in future behavior; however, the accumulations of memories of stressful episodes can cause many negative consequences. The focus of his work on the hypothalamus, which is the part of the brain that regulates hormonal responses to stress. Stress-induced changes in this area may represent a key neurobiological mechanism for the abnormality of stress hormone levels and the changes in behaviour, seen in many serious diseases. Thus, Wataru aims to understand the fundamental cellular and molecular mechanisms through which stressful experiences influence neural and synaptic plasticity in specific stress-related brain circuits, examine how different modalities, intensities and durations of stress cause different types of neural plasticity, and investigate causal relationships between stress-associative neural plasticity and the changes in physiological functions and behavior.
