Behavioral Neuroscience, Psychopharmacology

PSY 101 - Introductory Psychology
PSY 300 - Research Methods of Psychology
PSY 330 - Foundations of Behavioral Neuroscience

One of the main functions of the brain is to promote adaptive behaviors that facilitates survival. Under optimal conditions, the brain integrates information coming from external and internal domains (e.g., sensory, cognitive, affective, homeostatic, etc.) to generate appropriate context-specific behaviors. Functional alterations in the brain’s ability to integrate such information can result in maladaptive behaviors associated with a broad range of mental health problems, including substance abuse, eating disorders, major depression, or PTSD, to name a few. Understanding the neurobiological, genetic, and environmental factors responsible for individuals’ vulnerability to mental illness has been the goal of my research over the past 15 years.

Most Recent Publications:

Iglesias, A. G., Chiu, A. S., Wong, J., Campus, P., Li, F., Liu, Z. N., Bhatti, J. K., Patel, S. A., Deisseroth, K., Akil, H., Burgess, C. R., & Flagel, S. B. (2023). Inhibition of Dopamine Neurons Prevents Incentive Value Encoding of a Reward Cue: With Revelations from Deep Phenotyping. . J Neurosci. 2023 Nov 1;43(44):7376-7392. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0848-23.2023

Kuhn, B. N., Campus, P., Klumpner, M. S., Chang, S. E., Iglesias, A. G., & Flagel, S. B. (2022). Inhibition of a cortico-thalamic circuit attenuates cue-induced reinstatement of drug-seeking behavior in "relapse prone" male rats. Psychopharmacology, 239(4), 1035–1051. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-021-05894-9

Cabib, S., Campus, P., Latagliata, E. C., Orsini, C., & Tarmati, V. (2021). Repetitive and Inflexible Active Coping and Addiction-like Neuroplasticity in Stressed Mice of a Helplessness-Resistant Inbred Strain. Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland), 11(12), 174. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs11120174

Haight, J. L., Campus, P., Maria-Rios, C. E., Johnson, A. M., Klumpner, M. S., Kuhn, B. N., Covelo, I. R., Morrow, J. D., & Flagel, S. B. (2020). The lateral hypothalamus and orexinergic transmission in the paraventricular thalamus promote the attribution of incentive salience to reward-associated cues. Psychopharmacology, 237(12), 3741–3758. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-020-05651-4

Campus, P., Covelo, I. R., Kim, Y., Parsegian, A., Kuhn, B. N., Lopez, S. A., Neumaier, J. F., Ferguson, S. M., Solberg Woods, L. C., Sarter, M., & Flagel, S. B. (2019). The paraventricular thalamus is a critical mediator of top-down control of cue-motivated behavior in rats. eLife, 8, e49041. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.49041

Most Recent Presentations:

Campus, P. (2019). Orexinergic transmission in the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus affects the attribution of motivational value to reward-associated cues. European Behavioral Pharmacology Society Biennial Meeting 2019, August 28-31, 2019, Braga, Portugal.

Campus, P. (2018). Establishing a role for the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus in the attribution of incentive motivational value to reward-associated cues. (2018, January). Winter Conference on Brain Research, January 14-18, Whistler, Canada.

Press Articles:

Makin S (2020, January 1). Scientists Spot Addiction-Associated Circuit in Rats. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-spot-addiction-associated-circuit-in-rats/  

Science Daily. (2019, September 10). Brain circuit controls individual responses to temptation in rats. ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190910111410.htm

Winter L (2020, January 3). Addictive Behavior Control Circuit Discovered in Rat Brains. https://www.thescientist.com/news-opinion/addictive-behavior-control-circuit-discovered-in-rat-brains-66911