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UNDERSTANDING THE NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING DRUG ADDICTION
UNDERSTANDING THE NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING DRUG ADDICTION
Drug addiction is a growing problem in the Unites States that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare. The typical drug addiction pattern is to cycle from drug taking (bingeing) to abstinence to relapse (see figure on left). In my lab we have developed animal models of the different phases of drug addiction that include the development of addiction, the maintenance of addiction, abstinence and relapse. Using these sophisticated behavioral paradigms in conjunction with neuroscience techniques we explore the neurobiology underlying addiction and apply that knowledge toward the development of neurobiological and behavioral treatment stategies for its treatment. We have discovered that environmental enrichment can be effective at preventing relapse and are currently exploring this further including the brain and behavioral mechanisms that are involved in this exciting finding. In collabroation with several other laboratories around the country we are developing novel pharmacological agents that might be used in treatment of opiate, cocaine and methamphetamine addiction.
NEURAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING MOTIVATON AND REWARD-RELATED LEARNING
NEURAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING MOTIVATON AND REWARD-RELATED LEARNING
Much of our everyday lives involves the emission of goal-directed behaviors; behaviors that result in the attainment of rewards (i.e., food, TV-viewing, money,...). In pursuing these rewards we, and animals, learn to associate environmental stimuli and certain of our behaviors with these rewards. In the process, these environmental stimuli acquire the ability to elicit from us the same behaviors that the primary rewards do. The neural mechanisms by which this form of reward-related learning occurs are not fully known and might involve the acquisition by the environmental stimulus, referred to as a conditioned stimulus (CS), of the capacity to activate the same neural substrates activated by the primary reward, referred to as the unconditioned stimulus (US). We have proposed a neurobiological model (see figure on the right) by which this occurs. To test this model we we have several projects going that use complex behavioral learning paradigms combined with neuroscience procedures (neuropharmacology, immunohistochemistry, RNAscope in-situ hybridization).
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