Basic Research

Basic Research

Project summary: Fluency in early math concepts, like simple multiplication (e.g., 2x4=8), predicts success in math through high school. Children who do not make the critical transition from calculating arithmetic problems to remembering them as math facts show lower success in school and ultimately poorer quality of life. Models of monolingual arithmetic argue that these arithmetic facts are encoded in verbal memory, making them part of the language system. In turn, bilinguals may only be able to access these facts in the language in which the facts were learned.

Basic Research

Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) is the most common form of adult acquired epilepsy. Unfortunately, it is frequently resistant to current anti-epileptic drugs and often times surgical therapy is the best available option for these individuals. While genetic mutations and developmental malformations can cause mTLE, it is usually caused by a brain injury such as head trauma, infection, ischemia, prolonged febrile seizures and status epilepticus.

Basic Research

Basic Research

Institutional Support

The `opioid epidemic' is one of the most significant health issues facing this country today with rates of opioid-associated deaths up 200% since 2000. This epidemic is also taking its toll on pregnant women and their babies, with an annual average of ~21,000 pregnant women ages 15 to 44 who have misused opioids this past month.  Infants who have been exposed to opioid drugs  exhibit an increased risk of neurological and behavioral consequences.

Norepinephrine (NE) provides excitatory drive onto midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons and modulates responses to dopaminergic drugs, including psychostimulants. Chronic loss of noradrenergic tone impairs DA neuron firing and DA release, leading to compensatory alterations in postsynaptic DA receptor signaling and a paradoxical hypersensitivity to dopaminergic drugs. The goal of this proposal is to identify the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the behavioral hypersensitivity to cocaine following chronic inhibition of the NE biosynthetic enzyme, dopamine -hydroxylase (DBH).