Research Interests:
Generally, we study how the brain regulates behaviors and behavioral disorders. Presently, however, we are focused on elucidating the following mechanisms:

(1) We are interested in the mechanisms responsible for acquisition of motivated behaviors, namely sexual behavior. Surprisingly little is known about neural plasticity that results from sexual experience. For example, sexually experienced animals display sexual efficiency during mating, suggesting that neural changes occurred during the initial encounter resulting in these enhancements. We are presently performing experiments that are elucidating these mechanisms.

(2) We are also interested in whether mechanisms that change with sexual experience similarly change with exposure to drugs of abuse. In other words, are pathways altered with sexual experience also subject to alterations with drugs of abuse? Our nervous system has been shaped by natural selection to reinforce behaviors that benefit survival of the individual, and thereby the species. These behaviors include drinking, eating, social interactions, and mating. In general, drugs of abuse artificially stimulate neural mechanisms that regulate naturally rewarding behaviors. However, not all people who have sex for the first time experience changes that reinforce sexual activity, just like not all people who are exposed to drugs of abuse become addicted. Therefore, understanding these overlapping mechanisms may benefit our understanding disorders of motivation or affect, such as addiction or depression.

(3) Thirdly, we study mechanisms responsible for impairment of libido that results from taking certain prescription medications. Indeed, we now have exciting new data indicating that some drugs known to impair libido may do so by acting on amino acid systems in brain areas that regulate sexual behavior.