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Karen Brebner, Ph.D. |
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Assistant Professor of Psychology Department
of Psychology
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"The
main focus of my
research is the exploration of animal models of addiction, including
self-administration of psychoactive drugs, behavioral sensitization,
relapse to
drug seeking behavior, and conditioned place preference. My most recent
work
addressed the relationship between long term depression and behavioral
sensitization to d-amphetamine. Sensitization to psychostimulant drugs
serves
as an animal model of craving and also as a model of enduring
drug-induced
neural plasticity. We have recently reported the development of a new
class of
“interference” peptides aimed at repairing functional and structural
alterations in brain regions implicated in a number of psychiatric
disorders.
One such interference peptide blocked long-term depression in the
nucleus
accumbens and also blocked the expression of behavioural sensitization.
We are
currently conducting follow-up studies to determine whether these
interference
peptides might be a novel pharmacotherapeutic approach for treating
drug addiction,
and whether there are applications to other neurological and
neuropsychiatric
disorders associated with abnormal synaptic function." |
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