Neural Circuits for Motivation & Arousal Laboratory

The Neural Circuits for Motivation and Arousal Laboratory at the Psychiatry Research Institute at Montefiore Einstein (PRIME) focuses on understanding the neural circuits underlying reward seeking, drug addiction and arousal. We use a systems-level approach that combines behavioral, pharmacological, electrophysiological, optogenetic and fiber photometry techniques in awake, freely moving animals.

Research at the Neural Circuits for Motivation and Arousal Laboratory focuses on the nucleus accumbens, a part of the ventral striatum that projects to motor output structures of the basal ganglia. The accumbens and associated circuitry are involved in drug addiction and receive input from limbic structures that process stimuli that predict rewards. These limbic structures include the basolateral amygdala, which sends glutamatergic axons to the accumbens, and the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which sends a dopamine projection. We investigate how these projections to the accumbens alter the activity of accumbens neurons to influence reward-seeking behavior and arousal.

A secondary focus of the lab is to understand how drugs alter neurons in these circuits to produce drug-seeking behavior.