Research

Animal studies are essential to understanding the neural circuitries responsible for responding to and learning about stimuli in the environment that are emotionally significant, either because they are aversive (e.g. threatening, uncontrollable) or rewarding (e.g. interesting, pleasurable). Of those brain regions that constitute these neural circuitries, a number contain a combination of neurons specialized for either aversion processing or reward processing. Identifying and studying these “aversion” and “reward” neurons specifically is essential to understand how neural circuits for aversion and reward processing function and, furthermore, how they are altered by chronic exposure to aversion.

Our research focuses on the neural pathways involving amygdala-nucleus accumbens-ventral tegmentum-nucleus accumbens in aversion and reward processing and behaviour. Methods include neuronal tracing; pathway-specific measurement of neuronal activity and neurotransmitter signalling during aversion- or reward-directed behaviour using fibre photometry; laser capture microdissection of specific neuronal populations for transcriptome expression; brain histology and quantification of specific genes or proteins; environmental perturbations in the form of chronic social stress; neuropharmacological targeting of specific receptors (e.g. orphan receptors, neuropeptide receptors) and channels (e.g. transient receptor potential cation channels).

(1) Reward- and aversion-signalling by cholecystokinin-negative and -positive basal amygdala-nucleus accumbens glutamate neurons and changes induced by chronic social stress.

(2) Reward signalling in nucleus accumbens-ventral tegmentum-nucleus accumbens pathways and changes induced by chronic social stress.