According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1 in 8 people globally live with a mental health disorder, a diagnosis associated with impairments in an individual’s cognition, emotional regulation, or behavior critical for daily life. Our research program utilizes various animal models and sophisticated neuroscience strategies to identify and target fundamental behavioral components shared across multiple disorders. The research focus of our labs spans all five major domains of functioning described in the National Institutes of Mental Health Research Domain Criteria, including positive valence (i.e., appetitive motivational systems), negative valence, cognition, social processes, and arousal/regulatory systems. By understanding the nature of mental health and illness in terms of varying degrees of dysfunction in fundamental neural systems, our approaches will lead to better diagnosis, prevention, intervention, and cures.

Faculty: Antic, Castro-Alamancos, Hormigo-Munoz, Ma, Spellman, Tuncdemir