research
Research
My main research interests are the underlying mechanisms of social and cued fear, with focus on therapeutical approaches. For this, I am using several behavioral paradigms, as well as pharmacological and histological techniques in both mice and rats. The behavioral paradigms include cued fear conditioning, social fear conditioning, social approach-avoidance, social and object discrimination, elevated plus-maze, forced swim test. The pharmacological and histological techniques include stereotaxic surgery, central (icv, local) and i.p. drug administration, receptor autoradiography.
profile
Profile
2013 to date
Post-doctoral researcher (ELITE-Network Bavaria funded) in Prof. Neumann's group at the University of Regensburg, Germany
2009 – 2013
PhD student in neurobiology in Prof. Neumann's group at the University of Regensburg, Germany
2007-2009
M Sc. in Experimental and Clinical Neurosciences (ECN) at the University of Regensburg, Germany (Master thesis: Role of oxytocin in social memory and social approach behavior in male C57BL/6 mice).
2002-2006
undergraduate studies in biology at the University of Timisoara, Romania
April 15th, 1984 in Timisoara, Romania
publications
Publications
2013
Toth I, Neumann ID (2013) Animal models of social avoidance and social fear. Cell and Tissue Research. doi:10.1007/s00441-013-1636-4
Toth I, Neumann ID, Slattery DA (2013) Social fear conditioning as an animal model of social anxiety disorder. Curr Protoc Neurosci. Chapter 9: Unit 9.42. doi: 10.1002/0471142301.ns0942s63.
Lukas M*, Toth I*, Veenema AH, Neumann ID (2013) Oxytocin mediates rodent social memory within the lateral septum and the medial amygdala depending on the relevance of the social stimulus: Male juvenile versus female adult conspecifics. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 38(6): 916-26. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2012.09.018.
2012
Toth I, Neumann ID, Slattery DA (2012) Central administration of oxytocin receptor ligands affects cued fear extinction in rats and mice in a timepoint-dependent manner. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 223(2):149-58. doi: 10.1007/s00213-012-2702-4.
Toth I, Neumann ID, Slattery DA (2012) Social fear conditioning: a novel and specific animal model to study social anxiety disorder. Neuropsychopharmacology. 37(6):1433-43. doi: 10.1038/npp.2011.329
Toth I, Dietz M, Peterlik D, Huber SE, Fendt M, Neumann ID, Flor PJ, Slattery DA (2012) Pharmacological interference with metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 7 but not subtype 5 differentially affects within- and between-session extinction of Pavlovian conditioned fear. Neuropharmacology. 62(4):1619-26.
2011
Lukas M, Toth I, Reber SO, Slattery DA, Veenema AH, Neumann ID (2011) The neuropeptide oxytocin facilitates pro-social behavior and prevents social avoidance in rats and mice. Neuropsychopharmacology. 36(11):2159-68. doi:10.1038/npp.2011.95
