Dr. John Christianson is a F32-funded research associate with extensive knowledge the neural mechanisms underlying resilience and vulnerability to anxiety and fear behavior. Past research has identified that psychological variables, including behavioral control over stress and safety signals during stress lead to a resilience from stress-induced anxiety. Furthermore, he has identified causal roles for the medial prefrontal cortex and insular cortex, respectively, in these stress-mitigating effects. His immediate goal is to advance his academic and technical skills in order to enact an independent research program studying the neural basis of safety learning and fear inhibition by safety. The K99/R00 proposal is a key component in this pursuit. Career Development Plan: Dr. Christianson
Public Health Relevance
Learning the difference between danger and safety is critical to survival, yet in some psychiatric conditions this process fails. Without veridical detection of safety, someone may express fear or anxiety even when the environmental cues indicate that danger is unlikely. The proposed work tests the hypothesis that the insular cortex is a critical contributor to safety learning and that neuroplastic changes in the insular cortex underlie the storage and recall of safety memory. This work has important implications for the treatment and diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder and other conditions that involve heightened fear and anxiety.
| Sarlitto, Mary C; Foilb, Allison R; Christianson, John P (2018) Inactivation of the Ventrolateral Orbitofrontal Cortex Impairs Flexible Use of Safety Signals. Neuroscience 379:350-358 |
| Rogers-Carter, Morgan M; Varela, Juan A; Gribbons, Katherine B et al. (2018) Insular cortex mediates approach and avoidance responses to social affective stimuli. Nat Neurosci 21:404-414 |
| Foilb, Allison R; Flyer-Adams, Johanna G; Maier, Steven F et al. (2016) Posterior insular cortex is necessary for conditioned inhibition of fear. Neurobiol Learn Mem 134 Pt B:317-27 |
| Foilb, Allison R; Christianson, John P (2016) Serotonin 2C receptor antagonist improves fear discrimination and subsequent safety signal recall. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 65:78-84 |
| Chen, Veronica M; Foilb, Allison R; Christianson, John P (2016) Inactivation of ventral hippocampus interfered with cued-fear acquisition but did not influence later recall or discrimination. Behav Brain Res 296:249-253 |
| Amat, Jose; Dolzani, Samuel D; Tilden, Scott et al. (2016) Previous Ketamine Produces an Enduring Blockade of Neurochemical and Behavioral Effects of Uncontrollable Stress. J Neurosci 36:153-61 |
| Sørensen, Andreas T; Cooper, Yonatan A; Baratta, Michael V et al. (2016) A robust activity marking system for exploring active neuronal ensembles. Elife 5: |
| Amat, Jose; Christianson, John P; Aleksejev, Roman M et al. (2014) Control over a stressor involves the posterior dorsal striatum and the act/outcome circuit. Eur J Neurosci 40:2352-8 |
| Christianson, John P; Flyer-Adams, Johanna G; Drugan, Robert C et al. (2014) Learned stressor resistance requires extracellular signal-regulated kinase in the prefrontal cortex. Front Behav Neurosci 8:348 |
| Christianson, John P; Drugan, Robert C; Flyer, Johanna G et al. (2013) Anxiogenic effects of brief swim stress are sensitive to stress history. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 44:17-22 |
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