The major focus of this work is to identify specific neurobiological substrates which mediate ethanol's reinforcing, sedative and anxiolytic effects. Identifying the specific neuroanatomical and neuropharmacological substrates of GABA and opioid receptors that regulate ethanol neurobehavioral effects, may lead to the development of new pharmacotherapies for alcohol abuse. This line of research has the general goal of developing new drugs to treat alcoholism. Many of the drugs we evaluate are newly generated compounds that researchers are investigating for their anxiolytic actions . My research interests include the neurochemical correlates and determinants of addictive behavior, behavioral arousal, motivational states, and learning and memory.
Current research is concerned with an animal model of alcohol abuse and alcoholism.
The focus is on hereditary predispositions to excessive alcohol drinking behavior, sensitivity to alcohol, and tolerance to alcohol. My research interests include the developmental plasticity of the brain following exposure to drugs or toxins either in utero or during the first weeks of life. Behavioral Pharmacology, Learning, Motivation. My general research interests include the development and evaluation of methods for measuring the behavioral effects of drugs in laboratory animals including reinforcement, conditioned drug effects, drug tolerance and sensitization. A related line of research examines behavioral correlates of alcohol preference in animal models of genetically-transmitted propensities to consume high or low amounts of alcohol.