Research

Neuroscience

The Center’s research is also laboratory-based using both animal models and human subjects. The neuroscience studies encompass work on stress and arousal in individuals and groups, neuroimaging, stress physiology, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, neuroplasticity gene-environment interactions and neurobiology of stress. These studies address genetic, molecular and cellular biology and brain responses to stress and subsequent behavioral changes.

The Center conducts studies on individuals involved in motor vehicle accidents using functional brain imaging to understand neurological, physiological correlates of acute stress and PTSD funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. The Center began a national initiative to develop a postmortem brain tissue collection for the study of the neuropathology of exposure to extreme stress and potential genetic susceptibilities of those exposed to extreme environments and traumatic stress.

Other neuroscientific research focuses on the effects of stress-related neurochemicals on amygdala neurons and on synaptic transmission in the intra- and inter-amygdala neuronal circuitry. This has led to the development of animal models of PTSD that allow the observation of cellular changes in learning and memory that may be altered when an animal is subjected to stress.

These findings have particular significance since PTSD costs Americans an estimated $45 billion per year (in the years preceding the September 11th terrorist attacks) in hospitalizations, lost productivity, etc. The findings obtained from the animal model have great potential to improve treatment strategies for PTSD.

The Center’s research publications on neuroscience are extensive.