Yan Dong

Dr. Dong's laboratory long-term research goal is to understand the neural mechanisms underlying emotional and motivational responses. The laboratory focuses on animal models related to drug addiction. Addictive drugs are among the most effective and efficient external stimuli that evoke the strongest emotional and motivational states. The hypothesis is that strong incentive stimuli, such as experience of drugs of abuse, shift the emotional and motivational states by rewiring the neural circuits in the brain reward pathway. To test this hypothesis, they have been examining several novel forms of neural plasticity upon exposure to cocaine. 

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