Hao Wang 
Neural Circuits of Innate Behaviors [PDF ebook] 

This book summarizes the latest research findings in the neurocircuitry of innate behaviors, covering major topics such as innate fear, aggression, feeding, reward, social interaction, parental care, spatial navigation, and sleep-wake regulation. For decades, humans have been fascinated by wild animals’ instincts, like the annual two-thousand-mile migration of the monarch butterfly in North American, and the “imprint” behavior of newborn birds. Since these instincts are always displayed in stereotypical patterns in most individuals of a given species, the neural circuits processing such behaviors must be genetically hard-wired in the brain. Recently, with the development of modern techniques, including optogenetics, retrograde and anterograde virus tracing, and in vivo calcium imaging, researchers have been able to determine and dissect the specific neural circuits for many innate behaviors by selectively manipulating well-defined cell types in the brain. This book discusses recent advances in the investigation of the neural-circuit mechanisms underlying innate behaviors.

Table of Content

Chapter 1: Neural Circuits Underlying Innate Fear.- Chapter 2: Neurobiology and Neural Circuits of Aggression.- Chapter 3: Neural Regulation of Feeding Behavior.- Chapter 4: Neural Circuits for Reward.- Chapter 5: Neuronal response and behavioral modulation in social interaction.- Chapter 6: Neural circuit mechanisms that underlie parental care.- Chapter 7: Spatial navigation.- Chapter 8: Neural circuits for sleep-wake regulation.

About the author

Dr. Hao Wang is a Distinguished Professor and Principle Investigator at the Institute of Neuroscience, Zhejiang University School of Medicine. He received a Cheung Kong Scholars’ award from the Chinese Ministry of Education (Youth Program) in 2016. His research focuses on neural mechanisms of innate behaviors, and he has published several papers in leading journals in this field, such as Nature Neuroscience, Cell Reports, e Life and the Journal of Neuroscience.