Choice, Addiction and NeuroDYsfunction
Our research activities focus on the psychological and neurobiological determinants of the different stages of addiction (i.e., escalation of drug use, transition to compulsion, abstinence and relapse) to drugs of abuse, like cocaine, nicotine and heroin. We also study other behaviors such as overconsumption of sweet foods.
To successfully tackle these goals, we use an animal model approach combined with innovative behavioral procedures, specially designed to probe the psychological processes that underlie drug choices and preferences. We use state-of-the-art methods for in vivo recording and manipulation of neuronal activity in discrete brain circuits in behaving rats, transcriptomics but also classic single- and double-labelling immunohistochemistry methods for large-scale mapping of brain functional activity.
The research activities of the team revolve around the following main thematic axes:
Psychological and neurobiological mechanisms underlying drug choices and preferences
Our overarching goal here is to compare drug- versus nondrug-preferring rats to elucidate what is awry, both at the psychological and neurobiological levels, in drug-preferring rats that may explain their abnormal preference for the drug.
Moreover, we question the behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms of drug choice while being under the influence of the drug.
Behavioral and neurobiological substrates of continued drug use despite negative consequences
We study how different punishment settings can impact drug intake and how it varies with time and among individuals. We also interrogate how resistance to punishment arises and how it impacts pathological drug use.
Prefrontal-based attentional dysfunctions in nicotine addiction
The goal of this research axis is to study the neural foundations of the causal links between attention impairments and nicotine addiction, with a special focus on the medial prefrontal cortex.
Team composition
- Serge Ahmed: DR1 CNRS, HDR, (Group Leader)
- Karine Guillem: CR1 CNRS, HDR
- Magalie Lenoir: CRCN CNRS
- Michel Engeln: CRCN CNRS
- Caroline Vouillac Mendoza: AI CNRS
- Giulia Fois: Postdoctoral fellow
[How to reach us]
Equipe CANDY
Université de Bordeaux (site Carreire)
Zone Nord, Bat 1A - 3ème étage
146 rue Léo Saignat
33076 Bordeaux Cedex