This is a proposal for continuation of a Research Scientist Award directed toward mental health issues at the interface between the basic and clinical sciences. I plan to continue to explore the mechanisms involved in the adaptive aspects of the several biogenic amine systems, because I have previously provided evidence that these adaptations serve a restitutive or buffering function in the brain. In the case of the dopaminergic system I have proposed that this restitutive system serves to prevent psychotic destabilization in the face of chronic unavoidable stress. In the past period I have developed a model, in rats, of the function of this restitutive system. This model involves training rats to perform the conditioned avoidance response (CAR) which is inhibited by all neuroleptic drugs. With my collaborators, I have produced pilot evidence that chronic inescapable stress also leads to inhibition of the CAR, showing that the brain is capable of making a neuroleptic-like response to persistant adversity. In other studies we are investigating the mechanism of this and other aminergic response s at the genomic and synaptic levels, as well as the effect of prenatal factors on the development of this adaptive capacity.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Scientist Award (K05)
Project #
5K05MH014024-27
Application #
2243012
Study Section
Research Scientist Development Review Committee (MHK)
Project Start
1985-06-01
Project End
1996-05-31
Budget Start
1994-07-01
Budget End
1996-05-31
Support Year
27
Fiscal Year
1994
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
New York University
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
004514360
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10012