Home Department: Human Biology
Mentor: William Giardino (Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences)

"Sex-Dependent Extended Amygdala Circuits Underlying the Impact of Early Life Stress on Cocaine Reward"

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) impact ~2/3 of US adults, with women more likely to experience 4+ ACE types. ACEs increase adolescent drug initiation and lifetime drug use, but the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the relationship between ACEs, biological sex, and drug-seeking remain largely unknown. Aniyah’s project examines the sex-specific role of extended amygdala neuropeptide neurons in mediating impacts of early life stress (ELS) on the reinforcing nature of cocaine in mice. Aniyah hypothesize that ELS heightens cocaine-seeking in a BNST activity-dependent manner, with this effect differing by sex and varying across hormonal fluctuations (assessed by estrous staging in female mice).