Research Focus

Life experiences have a profound impact on the brain. Our lab is interested in (1) understanding the neurocircuitry of emotion, (2) its modulation by life experience and mood modulatory drugs and (3) the alterations in emotional neurocircuitry that underlie complex psychiatric disorders like anxiety and depression. Using animal models of anxiety and depression, some of which are based on perturbations of early life experience, we study the molecular, epigenetic and cellular changes that contribute to long-lasting alterations in behavior. We explore the importance of early critical periods in setting up vulnerability or resilience to psychopathology by using environmental, pharmacological, genetic or pharmacogenetic (DREADDs) perturbations. We are interested in the changes that arise in the development of stress neurocircuitry thus directly impacting adult stress responses, and generating a substrate for vulnerability or resilience to disorders like anxiety and depression. Our studies thus far have focused on the role of serotonin, the serotonin2A receptors and Gq signaling in contributing to behavioral alterations and cellular changes in limbic neurocircuitry observed in animal models of anxiety and depression. We also study the modulation of bioenergetics within neurocircuits that modulate mood, in particular the relevance of mitochondrial biogenesis and function in the etiology and treatment of mood disorders. We investigate the molecular and cellular adaptations that arise from sustained antidepressant treatment including fast-acting antidepressant therapies. One such adaptation is the regulation of adult neural stem cells and we are interested in the pathways that regulate adult neurogenesis and their contribution to mood-related behavior. Our focus has been thus far on studying the role of specific monoaminergic receptors and the neurohormone thyroid in the regulation of both basal and antidepressant induced hippocampal neurogenesis. We use pharmacological and genetic approaches, and tools spanning molecular, cell biological and behavioral studies to understand the neurocircuitry of emotion.

Read In Other Languages