Seminar – 21st Annual Mariann Blum Memorial Lectureship in the Neurosciences presents: Kate M. Wassum, Ph.D.

My research goal is to use and advance sophisticated behavioral paradigms, coupled with neuropharmacology and neurochemical monitoring techniques, to elucidate the precise neural mechanisms and systems that underlie discrete aspects of motivated learning and decision-making. Moreover, my goals extend to understanding how disorders, such as obesity and addiction, marked by maladaptive decision-making result in such aberrant motivated behavior. Towards this goal my lab uses several approaches in parallel and often in combination:

In vivo electrochemistryFast-scan cyclic voltammetry for real time online monitoring of dopamine
Biosensors for near-real time neurotransmitter measurement (glutamate & glutamate/dopamine)
Neuropharmacology
Instrumental Conditioning
Pavlovian Conditioning