Her research focuses on understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of aberrant motivation related to addiction and obesity. The Borgland lab uses a combination of techniques to explore how areas of the brain involved in reward valuation and motivated behaviour are rewired by consumption of palatable foods, obesegenic diets or drugs of abuse. The laboratory has made exciting discoveries on how plasticity within the mesolimbic dopamine circuit is modulated by satiety-promoting peptides, including insulin and leptin and how palatable food can prime future food seeking.