This is a project for Seminar in Neuroscience regarding the RAD Lab. The Reward and Addictive Disorder (RAD) Lab is a research lab at Miami University that makes use of mice in order to study compulsive and reward-seeking behavior. More specifically, the RAD Lab seeks to study changes in brain function associated with maladaptive behaviors by comparing neural functioning in healthy and maladaptive mice. The RAD Lab has four broad areas of focus in terms of specific research questions they seek to answer. For alcohol, they study sex differences in compulsive-like alcohol drinking and PTSD’s relation alcohol use disorder. Additionally, this lab studies the neural mechanisms of opioid reward and aversion and the role of dopaminergic contribution to behavioral flexibility. Substance use and addiction are highly prevalent and societally relevant topics, and these findings gather important information that could be useful in therapies and prevention. Animal models using mice are used to gain information on motivational brain circuits. The approaches used in the RAD Lab focus on manipulation of brain function and studying patterns of expression. The main methods employed for their published work focused on chemogenetics and genetic models. Recent publications from the RAD Lab have reached important findings for the study of addiction. In the publication Radke et al. 2017, chronic exposure to alcohol was associated with a decreased constraint of seeking alcohol in the presence of a punishment compared to mice that were exposed to air. Results from Sneddon et al. 2021, supported the idea that a brain region, the NAc core, is important for understanding compulsive-like alcohol consumption. Relating trauma and alcohol use, results from Sneddon et al. 2021 indicated the association of cortico-amygdala circuitry related behavior and infant trauma on fear learning in adulthood. Research by the RAD Lab provides important studies necessary for understanding addiction and provides great experience for anyone interested in neuroscience.
Authors: Sophia Pearson, Lucy Chappell, Vasudha Sarvagya
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Joyce Fernandes, Department of Biology
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