Vanessa Stempel

Vanessa Stempel is a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, focusing on the neural mechanisms underlying instinctive behaviors and their behavioral flexibility. Her work investigates evolutionarily conserved brain circuits in rodents, particularly how synaptic and cellular processes enable adaptive responses to internal states and environmental changes.

• Research Interests: Instinctive behaviors, synaptic plasticity, neuronal computation, and behavioral modulation by stress/hunger.
• Methods: Combines in vivo neural activity recordings, optogenetics, molecular analyses, and transcriptomics in mice models.

Her publications highlight studies on escape behavior circuits, including GABAergic neuron dynamics (2023), inhibitory control in defensive behaviors (2021), and synaptic threshold mechanisms (2018). Earlier work explored cannabinoid receptor-mediated plasticity in the hippocampus (2016).