Choice, Addiction and Neurodysfunctions (Candy)

Our research aims at studying the environmental, psychological and neurobiological determinants of the hallmark stages and behavioral features of addiction, including transition to addiction, individual drug preferences, loss of control, craving and vulnerability to relapse. To pursue our research goals, we resort to a wide array of relevant methods, procedures and techniques ranging from innovative behavioral procedures, specially designed to probe addiction-related behavioral processes (e.g., decision-making, choice and attention), state-of-the-art methods for in vivo recording and manipulation of neuronal activity in discrete brain circuits in behaving rats, to transcriptomic approaches. We also participate to clinically-oriented research projects, mainly by offering consulting to study design and/or data interpretation.