How fentanyl changes the brain: assessing mood, cognition, and withdrawal using animal models of addiction and brain-wide neural activity markers

Fentanyl overdose is responsible for nearly 75,000 deaths each year in the U.S. and causes severe psychological, physical, financial, and social harm. Despite existing treatments, fentanyl addiction remains difficult to overcome due to the chronic and complex nature of fentanyl addiction which contributes to patterns of chronic use and high relapse rates. This is partly […]

Psychomotor function of Locus Coeruleus-Norepinephrine system during decision-making

Many psychiatric disorders involve an abnormality in movements, termed ‘psychomotor’dysfunction, that reflects aberrant activity of the brain circuits producing behavior. Nevertheless,psychomotor mechanisms remain poorly understood. One possible source of psychomotor dysfunction is alterations in neuromodulatory transmitters, such as norepinephrine (NE), which is broadcast throughout the brain from a small brainstem region called locus coeruleus (LC). […]

Beliefs and Attitudes for Successful Implementation in Schools – Teachers (BASIS-T)

We have developed – and are currently conducting a large-scale randomized trial of – at teacher-focused version of the Beliefs and Attitudes for Successful Implementation in Schools (BASIS) implementation strategy. BASIS-T is being tested in context of Positive Greetings at the Door (PGD) implementation. Details are available in a study protocol published in Implementation Science.

Once-weekly GLP-1R agonist dulaglutide for treatment of fentanyl use disorder and modulation of lateral habenula activity in male and female rats

Current pharmacological treatments for fentanyl use disorder, primarily opioid replacements, have proven insufficient to stem the tide of fentanyl related suffering and deaths. Novel pharmacotherapies are desperately needed, ideally ones that are non-opioid, highly convenient, and produce minimal side effects. One promising class of drugs that meets these criteria are glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor […]

Determining if activity in specific lateral habenula output pathways motivates avoidance of synthetic opioid withdrawal or cue induced reinstatement

Fentanyl abuse has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and is responsible for more than 70,000 overdose deaths each year. Avoidance of significant physical and emotional turmoil during withdrawal and exposure to drug-associated cues are two key deterrents to voluntary abstinence in those suffering from substance abuse disorder. By investigating the localized neuronal projections […]

Default mode network impairments in comorbid anxiety and cannabis use disorders

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by maladaptive self-focused attention (SFA), which itself is correlated with large scale brain network connectivity impairments. Cannabis use disorder (CUD) is commonly conceptualized as impaired reward processing within the ventral dopaminergic network, however, it is also implicated in connectivity disturbances in other critical cortical circuits. In the current study […]

Real-world Experiences of Alcohol and Cognitions over Time (REACT)

The overall aim of the REACT Study is to create and assess smartphone-based cognitive tasks to examine how acute alcohol intoxication affects attention. First, we will adapt laboratory-based cognitive tasks for use on smartphones. To maximize usability, feedback will be gathered in rapid prototyping interviews with young adults. Then, we will evaluate the adapted smartphone […]


COVID-19 pandemic and changes in the prevalence, patterns, and trajectories of substance use and related health risk outcomes among young adults in WA State

This project examines changes in young adult substance use, related health risk behaviors, and substance use-related risk factors from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic among young adults in WA state (where alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis sales and use are legal for adults age 21 and over) using the accelerated longitudinal cohort sequential data from […]

SPARK

SPARK is an autism research study and a growing community of autistic individuals, their families, and researchers with a goal to advance the understanding of autism. This study aims to improve the lives of people with autism by identifying the causes of autism and informing more effective therapies, treatments, services, and supports.