Behavioural Pharmacology

This research group, founded in 2023, is focused on understanding the neural mechanisms associated with complex behaviors, and the neural and behavioral abnormalities induced by neuropsychiatric disorders. For example, a primary goal of our research is a better understanding of factors that may contribute to persistent and maladaptive memories in humans, such as in the cases of drug dependence and anxiety disorders, in animal models of these disorders. Our goal is to characterize how environmental experience results in maladaptive behaviors, determine how brain mechanisms are altered in response to these experiences, and finally alter these mechanisms in an attempt to modulate these maladaptive behaviors.

In terms of drug dependence, an important goal is to characterize the molecular mechanisms that underlie the transition to addiction. We are particularly interested in how some individuals are more prone to develop addictive disorders, while some individuals seem resistant to developing addictive disorders. Identifying risk factors that may increase susceptibility to subsequent drug dependence among certain subpopulations may help in the development of targeted pharmacotherapies for addiction. To identify these subpopulations, we use the DSM-based 3-CRIT model, a translationally-relevant animal model of addiction that characterizes several diagnostic criteria described for human dependence in the DSM-IV and results in a distribution of animals ranging from those showing no addicted-like behavior to those showing addicted-like behavior on all three criteria.   

In terms of disorders associated with long-term negative associations, such as in PTSD and anxiety disorders, we are interested in the identification of pharmacotherapies to augment and/or accelerate the extinction of these associations. Stimuli associated with fearful experiences are important contributors to the persistence of these salient memories in humans, and perpetuate fear responses.