Research Interests
Complications
Prevention / Control
Category(ies) of Research
Basic
Descriptor of Research
Specifically, we ask how chronic pain and self-administration of addictive drugs alters function of ventral basal ganglia, and how this altered circuit function drives maladaptive behavior in disease states. Altered food intake, obesity and its metabolic sequelae are highly co-morbid with both addiction and chronic pain, and present important challenges to treatment. To this end, we aim to understand the neurobiological mechanisms of these highly comorbid disorders. We use a range of techniques including in vivo and patch clamp electrophysiology, genetic sequencing, optogenetic manipulations and behavior to study change in function in the ventral basal ganglia in models of chronic pain and disorders of maladaptive reward consumption.