Our lab investigates mechanisms of reward-motivated behavior in rodents using well-controlled assays to probe specific processes such as Pavlovian incentive learning and goal-directed action. We also examine how these processes become dysregulated to produce maladaptive behavior in addiction and other disorders of behavioral control. We apply a range of techniques in the lab, including chemo- and optogenetic tools to manipulate specific neural circuits, and microdialysis and fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to measure task-related neurochemical signaling.

Behavior, reward, maladaptive, optogenetic, dysregulation, disorders