Our research focuses on monoaminergic and hypocretinergic modulation of arousal-related processes including motivated behavior, substance abuse disorders, stress, and sleep/wake function.

We use a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the involvement of hypocretins in reward and addiction processes. Techniques include, electrophysiological recordings of sleep/wake behavior, self-administration of drugs of abuse, fast-scan cyclic voltammetry, viral manipulations to control circuits of interest, and single and multi-unit recordings in behaving animals.