Transient Neurodynamics of behavioral sensitization
PIs: L. Rubchinsky (Department of Mathematical Sciences, IUPUI) , C. Lapish
(Department of Psychology, IUPUI)
This interdisciplinary project is synergistically built
upon the mutually complimentary backgrounds of Principle Investigators:
experimental neurophysiology of addiction and analysis of neural
synchronization patterns. Altered communication in the brain is
hypothesized to be critical for the expression of a number of
pathological behaviors in addiction. However, an understanding of the
altered information processing dynamics that occur after repeated drug
use, and how they lead to the expression of altered behavioral
phenotypes, is very poor. The project will employ time-series analysis
techniques and experimental sensitization electrophysiology protocols
recently developed by PIs. The proposed studies will characterize the
spectrum of dynamical states neural circuits undergo during
sensitization with an extremely fine temporal time scale. This
will open future research in several important directions. First is the
future investigation of what cellular and network properties are
essential for the formation of not only observed synchrony levels but
also synchrony patterns in space and time. This highly detailed view of
the temporally complex nature of sensitization will allow for realistic
computational models of this phenomenon to be generated. Once it is
understood how sensitization affects neural processing, then one is
well positioned to explore how these altered regimes manifest impaired
cognitive function. The translational potential of these data for
diagnostic in individuals exposed to drugs of abuse is very intriguing
and may yield efficient strategies of treatment of subjects at various
stages of addiction. Completion of this study will open a way for this
kind of a clinically oriented research in biology of addiction.
