Neurobiology of motivated behavior

Our actions are driven by the pursuit of rewards and avoiding aversive outcomes. We are particularly interested in studying how stress and drugs of abuse influence motivation, learning, and decision-making processes. Our goal is to identify and reverse neural adaptations underlying aberrant processes in models of psychiatric disorders. To address this research goal, we have used multiple approaches to record cellular activity (fast scan cyclic voltammetry and fiber photometry) and manipulate cellular activity (pharmacology, chemogenetics, optogenetics, glial-specific viral tools) in rodents performing a variety of behavioral assays (drug self-administration, operant assays, Pavlovian conditioning, activate avoidance).

In the news

• Press release on our new grant studying the efficacy of AST-004 as a treatment for substance use disorders

• Article highlighting our study examining how estrous cycle stage and stress impacts learning

• Cecilia Alducin-Martinez awarded the ConTex Doctoral Fellowship award

• Angelica Ramos received the 2025 NSF GRFP fellowship award

• Angelica Ramos won a Neuroscience poster award at ABRCMS 2024

• Brandon Garcia received the 2024 NSF GRFP fellowship award.

• Zoe Kirchner won 3rd place at the UTSA 3 minute thesis competition.

• Karla Alexandre won 3rd place poster prize at the 2023 UTSA Roadrunner Experience Showcase.

• Morgan Johnston is a Neuroscience Scholars Program Associate (2022-2024) through the Society for Neuroscience.

• Feature article on Dr. Merridee’s Lefner’s dissertation research

• #ThisIsWhatAScientistLooksLike article on Merridee Lefner’s research.

• Morgan Johnston received the 2021 NSF GRFP fellowship award.

• Merridee Lefner won the BrainStorm Neuroscience pitch competition ($30,000 award).

• Dr. Claire Stelly won the award for the best postdoctoral fellow presentation at the 2019 Dopamine Club meeting.

• Press release on our study that examined how working harder changes how dopamine is released to drug rewards.

• Sean Tritley won a poster award at the 2018 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) for his work on how dopamine release in the ventral lateral striatum mediates the stress-induced enhancement in learning.

• Merridee Lefner won the Best Neuroscience Graduate Student Poster at the UTSA College of Sciences Research Conference for her work on dopamine’s role in facilitating and expressing changes in subjective preference

• A novel strategy to reduce cocaine intake by targeting midbrain astrocytes (press release on SALSI grant)

• Melissa Donate wins Outstanding Undergraduate from the College of Sciences

• Waiting for dopamine (press release on Fonzi et al, 2017)