Rate My Professor Michael Perkinson

Dr. Michael Perkinson is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Physiology at the University of Otago, part of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences within the Health Sciences Division. He holds a PhD and focuses his research on the role of dopamine in maternal behaviour. His investigations include establishing real-time in vivo measurement of dopamine release within reward centres in the maternal brain and assessing the effect of hormones on dopamine release during maternal behaviour. Perkinson's work involves investigating and manipulating reward circuits associated with maternal behaviour in vivo, drawing on expertise in behavioral neuroscience, calcium imaging, in vivo imaging and electrophysiology, neurophysiology, and immunofluorescence.

Perkinson has co-authored several peer-reviewed publications, including 'Kisspeptin neuron projections to oxytocin neurons are not necessary for parturition in the mouse' (2023), 'α-Melanocyte-stimulating hormone inhibition of oxytocin neurons switches to excitation in late pregnancy and lactation' (2022), 'Local kisspeptin excitation of rat oxytocin neurones in late pregnancy' (2022), 'Visualising oxytocin neurone activity in vivo: The key to unlocking central regulation of parturition and lactation' (2021), 'Plasticity in Intrinsic Excitability of Hypothalamic Magnocellular Neurosecretory Neurons in Late-Pregnant and Lactating Rats' (2021), and 'Increased neuronal activation in sympathoregulatory regions of the brain and spinal cord in type 2 diabetic rats' (2021). He has also presented conference posters on TRPV regulation of vasopressin neuron activity, dopamine-related neural signatures of paternal behaviour in mice, ΔN-TRPV1 regulation of magnocellular vasopressin neuron activity, the epithelial sodium channel's contribution to vasopressin neuron activity, and fiber photometric analysis of nucleus accumbens serotonin release during maternal behavior. His research has received recognition through awards such as the INF Glenn I. Hatton Award (2024), joint 1st PSNZ Bullivant Speaker Prize (2021), and Hypothalamic Neuroscience and Neuroendocrinology Australasia Poster Prize at the Medical Sciences Congress in Queenstown (2018). Perkinson co-received a Neurological Foundation of New Zealand grant with Dr. Rosie Brown and Dr. Jenny Clarkson for 'The menopausal mind: Estrogen's role in rewiring reward circuits' and an Accelerator Grant for 'Unveiling the Dynamics of Oxytocin Activity and Somatodendritic Release'.