Fellow, Irvine Center for Addiction Neuroscience, CNLM
Assistant Professor
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior

We employ anatomical, pharmacological, and chemogenetic strategies to observe and control neuronal populations and circuits in rodents, with the aim of understanding how these circuits control behavior. Currently we are investigating: 1) how ventral pallidum influences motivated behavior and decision making, 2) how early life stress, and adolescent drug use alters reward circuit development, and 3) brain mechanisms of cannabis and opiate reward.

Lab Website

addiction, reward circuits, cannabinoids, Pavlovian conditioning, motivation

 

Lab Members
Christina Ruiz, M.S. Lab Manager cruiz1@uci.edu Mitch Farrell, Grad Student mrfarrel@uci.edu Erik Castillo, Junior Specialist castile3@uci.edu Jenny Cevallos, Undergraduate Researcher jcevallo@uci.edu Christine Khanbijian, Undergraduate Researcher ckhanbij@uci.edu Jasmine Heyer, Undergraduate Researcher jheyer@usc.edu Julian Quintanilla, Rotating Grad Student julianq@uci.edu Sophia Levis, MD/PhD student slevis@uci.edu Siyu Liu, Undergraduate Researcher siyul10@uci.edu Gregory de Carvalho, Undergraduate Researcher gdecarva@uci.edu Alex Yoon, Undergraduate Researcher atyoon@uci.edu