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Neuroscience Graduate Program at UCSF
Behavioral Neuroscience of Addiction and Reinforcement
Work in my laboratory is based on the premise that addiction is a behavioral phenomenon that depends critically upon an animal's experience with the drug, and upon the modulation of drug-related behavior by conditioning. Therefore, we believe that an understanding of the underlying neural basis for alcohol and drug addiction will arise from investigations of neuronal function directly within animal models of addictive behavior.
To that end, we use extracellular ensemble neurophysiological recording to measure the activity of neurons in awake behaving rodents during the operant self-administration of alcohol, other drugs of abuse, and natural rewards. These studies examine the contribution of neural activity patterns within the brain reward circuitry to alcohol- and drug-seeking behavior. By recording from ensembles of single-units located within the nucleus accumbens during operant responding for oral alcohol solutions, we determined that there are phasic changes in the response of neuronal subpopulations that are tightly correlated in time with the major behavioral events that occur within the behavioral sequence performed to obtain alcohol. We now are examining the contribution of accumbens afferents both to patterns of neural activity and to alcohol self administration.
We also use behavioral pharmacological techniques to understand the contribution of specific neurochemical and neuroanatomical systems to the effects of alcohol on behavior. Current work emphasizes the role of conditioned cues in controlling different phases of self-administration, including the maintenance of the behavior and relapse after the behavior has been extinguished.
Elizabeth Steinberg, Graduate Student
Hong Nie, Ph.D., Associate Research Scientist
Irina Merzlyak, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow
Jackson Cone, Staff Research Associate
Lacey Sahuque, Staff Research Associate
Laura Corbit, Ph.D., Associate Investigator
Michael Gill, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist
Mridula Rewal, Ph.D., Assistant Research Scientist
Nadia Chaudhri, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow
Natalie Warrick, Staff Research Associate
Rachel Donahoe, Staff Research Associate
Ronald Keiflin, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow
William Schairer, Research Student
Link to Publications via PubMed
Lasek, A, Janak, P.H., He, L., Whistler, J. and Heberlein, U (2007) Downregulation of mu opioid receptor by RNAi in the VTA reduces ethanol consumption in mice, Genes, Brain and Behavior, 6, 728-735.
Corbit, L. H. and Janak, P.H. (2007) Ethanol-associated cues produce general Pavlovian-instrumental transfer, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 31, 1-9.
Wang, J., Jeanblanc, J., Yaka, R., Chaudhri, N., Janak, P.H., and Ron, D. (2007) Ethanol induces long-term facilitation of NR2B-NMDA receptor activity in the dorsal striatum: implications for alcohol drinking behavior, Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 3593-3602.
Tye, K.M. and Janak, P.H. (2007) Amygdala neurons differentially encode motivation and reinforcement, Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 3937-3945.
Corbit, L.H., Janak, P.H., and Balleine, B.W. (2007) Dissociation of the general and outcome-specific forms of Pavlovian-instrumental transfer by shifts in motivational state and the role of the ventral tegmental area. European Journal of Neuroscience, 26, 3141-9.
Corbit, L. H. and Janak, P.H. (2007) Inactivation of the lateral but not medial dorsal striatum eliminates the excitatory impact of Pavlovian stimuli on instrumental responding, Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 13977-13981.
Chaudhri, N, Sahuque, L., and Janak, P.H., (2008) Context-induced relapse of Pavlovian conditioned responses to ethanol cues in rats, Biological Psychiatry, 64, 203-210.
Tye, K.M., Stuber, G.D., de Ridder, B, Bonci, A., Janak, P.H. (2008) Rapid strengthening of thalamo-amygdala synapses mediates cue-reward learning, Nature, 453, 1253-1257.
Carnicella, S., Kharazia, V., Jeanblanc, J., Janak, P.H., and Ron, D. (2008) GDNF is a fast-acting potent inhibitor of alcohol consumption and relapse, PNAS, 105, 8114-8119.
Patricia H. Janak, Ph.D.
Phone
510-985-3880
Office Location
Ernest Gallo Clinic & Research Center, Emeryville
Mailing Address
Ernest Gallo Clinic & Research Center
5858 Horton Street, Suite 200
Emeryville, CA 94608
Other Websites
Wheeler Center for the Neurobiology of Addiction