People - Terry
Name: Teresa H. Horton
Title: Research Neurobiologist/Associate Professor
Degree: Ph.D., University of Utah
Research area: Neuroendocrine control of reproduction and metabolism, evolutionary physiology
Address:
Department of Neurobiology and Physiology
Northwestern University
2205 Tech Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
Phone: (847) 467-1686
Email: thorton@northwestern.edu
Research description:
The body’s demand for energy and the partitioning of energy to growth, maintenance, storage, and reproduction differs as animals grow and age, and when exposed to different environmental conditions. The neuroendocrine system integrates information from the body and the environment to regulate energy consumption, expenditure, and reproduction to optimize survival and reproduction. My research investigates the physiological, cellular, and evolutionary mechanisms by which these integrative processes occur.
Current research examines the effects of steroid hormones on neuroendocrine centers that monitor the body’s physiological status and maintain homeostasis. One area of my research investigates the effects of prenatal exposure to androgenic hormones on the hypothalamic regulation of insulin sensitivity and the control of body composition. At the other end of the aging spectrum I am investigating whether several of the symptoms associated with the onset of menopause (hot flashes, weight gain, changes in metabolic rate, etc.), which occur following the loss of estrogen, result from changes in neuronal firing associated with changes in the expression of steroid-regulated ion channels.
The changes observed at either end of the aging spectrum are consistent with changes in the function of a “set point”. Be it a body weight set point or a body temperature set point, the concept of a set point is well engrained in regulatory physiology. The goal of this research is to elucidate the mechanism by which the set point is altered under different physiological and environmental challenges, and to learn how to reset it in the case of pathological conditions.
For my curriculum vitae please click here
Representative Publications.
Acosta-Martinez, M, Horton, T., Levine, JE. 2007. Estrogen receptors in neuropeptide Y neurons: at the crossroads of feeding and reproduction. Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism 18:48-50. doi:10.1016/j.tem.2006.12.001
Horton, TH. 2005. Fetal origins of developmental plasticity: animal models of induced life history variation. Am J Hum Biol 17:34-43
Anand, S., Losee-Olson, S., Turek, F.W., and Horton, T.H. 2002. Differential secretion of LH and FSH secretion in male Siberian hamsters: Independent regulation by photoperiod and social factors. Endocrinology 143(6):2178-88.
Horton, T.H. and C.N. Rowsemitt. (1992). Natural selection and variation in reproductive physiology. Pages 160-185 in, Mammalian Energetics: Interdisciplinary Studies of Metabolism and Reproduction. T.E. Tomasi and T.H. Horton, eds. Cornell University Press.
Horton, T. H. (1985). Cross‑fostering of voles demonstrates in utero effect of photoperiod. Biol. Reprod. 33:934‑939.
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