We are concluding work on a NIDA funded grant that is allowing us to examine the neural circuitry underlying risky decision making in METH and non-METH using men who have sex with men (MSM). We are using a combination of fMRI, structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), personality questionnaires, and computational modeling to attempt to capture the components and the neural circuit that underlies risky decision making.
We are currently working on an NIGMS funded grant on computational modeling of motivation, personality and risky decision-making. This work is being done in collaboration with a group at the University of Colorado at Boulder, including Seth Herd, Randy O’Reilly, and Tom Hazy. The project is attempting to build a neurobiologically based model of the major components involved in risky decision-making.
Neurobiology of Substance Use and Depression
Recently we have begun to investigate how this computational model can be used to better understand the role of the reward system (ventral and dorsal striatal, dopamine based systems) in the initiation and maintenance of substance abuse, and in depression.
Visit the SAND Lab (Social Affective Neuroscience of Decision-making)