| Affiliations: | |
| Project Leader: | Eric Williams ew55p@tamu.edu |
| Faculty Mentor: | Jun Wang, Ph.D. |
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Meeting Times:
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Summer 2016 (complete) |
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Team Size:
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3 (Team Full) |
| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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Team members will have the opportunity to work in a lab at the main medical school campus at Texas A&M Health Science Center. They will also gain experience working with lab animals, studying animal behavior, and have an opportunity of gaining a position in our lab for the upcoming year. |
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Team Needs:
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We are looking for reliable team members comfortable handling rodents, an interest in neuroscience and addiction, and a strong work-ethic. |
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Description:
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The research of our lab focuses on identifying the neurobiological basis of neuropsychiatric disorders, more specifically, alcohol addiction. We investigate the cellular and circuit alterations that occur in areas of the brain in response to excessive, pathological alcohol consumption. Addiction is believed to be triggered by drug-evoked maladaptive plasticity. This aberrant plasticity occurs differentially in distinct neuronal populations. We are particularly interested in changes that occur in specific populations of neurons and in specific afferent projections to these neurons; we currently investigate alcohol-mediated aberrant plasticity in the dorsal striatum, a major entry structure of the basal ganglia. The dorsomedial striatum (DMS) is responsible for “goal directed” activities, while the dorsolateral striatum (DLS) is responsible for “habitual” activity or habituation. It has been shown that the shift from recreational to compulsive drug or alcohol use is mediated by a shift from behavior mediated by the DMS to the DLS. One of the major ways we study addictive behavior is through operant behavioral testing and self-administration of alcohol. The purpose of this project will be to develop a new operant learning paradigm to differentiate goal directed vs habitual alcohol seeking and investigate its efficacy on animal subjects. The result of the research will guide future efforts toward the development of more effective therapeutics for alcohol use disorders. |