The Varodayan Lab

The Varodayan lab's research program is focused on understanding how alcohol and stress impact brain synapses and circuits to promote alcohol use disorder. We are particularly interested in the medial prefrontal cortex region of the brain as it regulates mood, motivation and impulsivity, and its dysfunction plays a critical role in several psychiatric diseases. Specifically, individuals with alcohol use disorder have reduced cortical volumes and significant cognitive deficits (e.g. difficulties with emotional processing, riskier decision-making, less impulse control). One significant barrier to developing pharmacological treatments that address these cognitive deficits is that the precise actions of alcohol and stress on medial prefrontal cortex synapses and circuits are not well understood. The fact that medial prefrontal cortex activity can be modulated by many different neuropeptides, neurotransmitters and neuroimmune factors widens this information gap, but also provides an excellent opportunity to identify novel therapeutic targets for improving cognitive function after chronic alcohol exposure. Therefore, research in the Varodayan lab spans three major questions: