Postdoctoral Researcher
ISTB 4018
email: reppucci@msu.edu
personal website: Christina Reppucci
Research Interests
My interests lie in delineating the functional neural circuitry underlying motivated behaviors using system neuroscience approaches, and how that circuitry may be differentially recruited in males and females. I am investigating the activation of pathways to the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system and the role of the orexin/hypocretin system during juvenile social play behavior.
Christina is supported by NIMH R01MH102456 and NSF IOS1735934.
Positions and Education
Since January 2017
Postdoctoral Researcher in the Neurobiology of Social Behavior Lab, directed by Dr. Alexa Veenema, Michigan State University
September 2015 – December 2016
Postdoctoral Researcher in the Neurobiology of Social Behavior Lab, directed by Dr. Alexa Veenema, Boston College
August 2015
Ph.D. in Psychology (Behavioral Neuroscience), Boston College. Advisor: Dr. Gorica D. Petrovich
2010
M.A. in Psychology (Behavioral Neuroscience), Boston College. Advisor: Dr. Gorica D. Petrovich
2008
B.S. in Biology, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA
Publications
Lee JDA, Reppucci CJ, Bowden SA, Huez EDM, Bredewold R, Veenema AH (2021). Structural and functional sex differences in the ventral pallidal vasopressin system are associated with the sex-specific regulation of juvenile social play behavior in rats. BioRxiv 2021.01.31.429043.
Reppucci CJ, Veenema AH (2020) The social versus food preference test: A behavioral paradigm for studying competing motivated behaviors in rodents. MethodsX 7:101119.
Reppucci CJ, Brown LA, Chambers AQ, Veenema AH (2020) Wistar rats and C57BL/6 mice differ in their motivation to seek social interaction versus food in the Social versus Food Preference Test. Physiol Behav 227:113162.
Reppucci CJ, Gergely CK, Bredewold R, Veenema AH (2020). Involvement of orexin/hypocretin in the expression of social play behaviour in juvenile rats. International Journal of Play 9:108-127.
Bredewold R, Nascimento NF, Ro GS, Cieslewski SE, Reppucci CJ, Veenema AH (2018) Involvement of dopamine, but not norepinephrine, in the sex-specific regulation of juvenile socially rewarding behavior by vasopressin. Neuropsychopharmacology, 43:2109-2117.
Reppucci CJ, Petrovich GD (2018). Neural substrates of fear-induced hypophagia in male and female rats. Brain Struc Funct, 223(6):2925-2947.
Reppucci CJ, Gergely CK, Veenema AH (2018) Activation patterns of vasopressinergic and oxytocinergic brain regions following social play exposure in juvenile male and female rats. J Neuroendocrinol, 30(8):e12582.
Reppucci CJ, Petrovich GD (2016) Organization of connections between the amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, and lateral hypothalamus: a single and double retrograde tracing study in rats. Brain Struc Funct, 221:2937-62.
Reppucci CJ, Kuthyar M, Petrovich GD (2013) Contextual fear cues inhibit eating in food-deprived male and female rats. Appetite, 69:186-95.
Petrovich GD, Hobin MP, Reppucci CJ (2012) Selective Fos induction in hypothalamic orexin/hypocretin, but not melanin-concentrating hormone neurons, by a learned food-cue that stimulates feeding in sated rats. Neurosci, 224:70-80.
Reppucci CJ, Petrovich GD (2012) Learned food-cue stimulates persistent feeding in sated rats. Appetite, 59:437-47.