My research program bridges areas of neuroscience, pharmacology, animal learning and cognition, and psychology. My research team uses preclinical animal models to elucidate the behavioral, neural, and pharmacological factors involved in the etiology of drug abuse. One arm of this research program investigates how behavioral and neuropharmacological processes involved in the perceptibility of a drug stimulus and the behavior it controls changes with learning history. For nicotine, recent research implicates α4β2-containing nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and the dorsal medial striatum in acquired appetitive behaviors controlled by the nicotine stimulus. Other empirical efforts focus on novel immune- and pharmacotherapy approaches for nicotine and methamphetamine addiction, understanding the reward-enhancing effects of drugs using behavioral economics, and development of more translationally relevant animal models of addiction. We are also extending these arms of the research program to include sex differences and nicotine-alcohol interaction
