Seminar – Anthony Burgos-Robles, Ph.D.

The main interest of Dr. Burgos-Robles's lab is to understand alterations on brain function by psychological stress. Using animal models, the lab uses sophisticated tools to evaluate the evolution of stress-induced alterations in the activity of discrete neural populations and circuits. Particularly, they focus on limbic regions such as the amygdala and the medial prefrontal cortex, which are necessary for emotional learning, as well as their projections to key downstream regions that promote aversive and rewarding behavior, such as the periaqueductal gray and the nucleus accumbens, respectively.

Ultimately, this research program will identify key neural elements that exhibit stress vulnerability and reveal alterations on important neural mechanisms leading to emotional and behavioral deficits. In addition, molecular characterization of the neural populations exhibiting stress vulnerability may reveal key biomarkers that could be exploited to gather further insights.