![The Cerebellum -Addiction Connection]()
Evidence suggests that dysregulation of the cerebellum—a part of the brain well known for motor coordination—contributes to mental health disorders including schizophrenia, autism and addiction. Yet the cerebellum’s impact on cognitive function remains largely unexplored. Kamran Khodakhah, Ph.D., has received a five-year, $3.6 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to expand on his earlier research linking the cerebellum to the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a brain region involved in addiction and other reward-seeking behaviors. He and his colleagues will use anatomical and physiological approaches to find the neural pathways by which the cerebellum can affect the VTA as well as two other regions associated with addiction: the prefrontal cortex and the nucleus accumbens. Dr. Khodakhah is professor and chair of the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience and the Florence and Irving Rubinstein Chair in Neuroscience. (1R01DA044761-01A1)
Posted on: Tuesday, November 21, 2017