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Neuroanatomical bases of stress responsiveness

One of the major goals of the laboratory is to elucidate the interconnected brain circuits and regions that detect and trigger many of the behavioral, autonomic, and endocrine responses elicited by external challenges, with an emphasis on psychological or emotional situations. Because the body does not have specific "stress" receptors, this question is highly complex and relevant to a better understanding of the role and manner by which stress is associated with so many psychological, psychiatric and physical disorders.

Neural mechanisms of habituation to stress

An active area of inquiry in the laboratory is the determination of the neural mechanisms involved in habituation and more generally, adaptation to stress.  Stress habituation is simply defined as a reduction in stress responsiveness when the same stressful situation is encountered over and over again.  Interestingly, it is widely believed that it is the repeated nature of stress that produces or triggers episodes of psychiatric illnesses.  However, little is known about the brain regions or mechanisms associated with stress habituation, or how different combinations of challenging experience may lead to stress sensitization instead of stress habituation, and therefore, these phenomena might turn out to be very important for our ultimate understanding of the etiology of stress-related disorders.

Role of stress in the etiology of psychiatric disorders

Using the knowledge obtained with regard to the brain circuits mediating the detection and triggering of stress responses, we are trying to determine the organization and the role of these circuits in animal models of psychiatric disorders.  Thus, our working hypothesis is that these circuits implicated in stress responsiveness is dysregulated in one or more types of brain disorder, leading to the symptoms that are now the hallmark of different psychiatric disorders such as depressive illnesses, anxiety disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorders.