Jocelyn Richard
University of Minnesota, MN·Neuroscience
Cues linked to drugs can trigger strong urges that drive escalating drug use and relapse, even after long periods of abstinence. Such cues can push reward seeking that is disconnected from a person's goals or from what they actually expect to gain.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Psychology
Pharmacology
- Topics
addiction
relapse
reward seeking
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Dec 2026
What they work on
- Test whether separate neurons in the ventral pallidum encode the incentive value of reward cues versus the expected value of outcomes, using in vivo single-unit electrophysiology to record individual neurons during cue presentations.
- Determine whether ventral pallidum GABA neurons projecting to the ventral tegmental area (VTA), compared with those projecting to the thalamus, encode cue-driven reward seeking, measuring their calcium activity with fiber photometry.
- Test the functional role of activity in ventral pallidum output pathways in driving behavioral responses to reward-associated cues.
More about the research
This may underlie compulsive drug use despite harmful consequences. Brain-stimulation (neuromodulation) treatments for addiction are held back by a gap in knowledge. It is unclear which brain circuits drive cue-triggered reward seeking and how they differ from circuits for goal-directed choices, which rely on accurate expectations about outcomes.
Why it matters
People with drug addiction often relapse after long abstinence when they encounter drug-associated cues. Identifying the brain cells and pathways through which cues drive compulsive reward seeking may help refine brain-based therapies, such as neuromodulation, that target the circuits underlying compulsive drug use.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Christian Bravo-Rivera
University of Puerto Rico-Medical Sciences, PR·Neuroscience
Characterize how nucleus accumbens neurons and astrocytes encode the learning and expression of approach/avoidance conflict, using calcium fiber photometry in mice performing the platform-mediated avoidance task.
Marina Picciotto
Yale University, CT·Neuroscience
Define the role of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in a ventral tegmental area to ventral pallidum GABA circuit and a medial septum to basolateral amygdala acetylcholine circuit that boost responding for rewards and reward-paired cues in mice.
Stephan Lammel
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Neuroscience
Test whether neurotensin signaling in the pathway from the lateral nucleus accumbens to the VTA drives hedonic feeding in mice, using optogenetics, NTS receptor blockers and a new neurotensin sensor that measures release in vitro and in vivo.
The school
University of Minnesota: 88 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research, 722 research doctorates a year.
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