Bita Moghaddam, Ph.D.
Professor, Neuroscience, Psychiatry- Ph.D. University of Kansas (1987)
- Office: A455 Langley Hall
- Telephone:412-624-2653
- Fax:412-624-9198
- E-mail: bita@pitt.edu
- Website:
Cellular basis of goal-directed behavior and animal models of schizophrenia.
Research Summary:
We are interested in mechanisms that underlie cognitive control of goal-directed behavior, and how these mechanisms are disrupted in animal models of psychiatric disorders. Our primary focus is on the prefrontal cortex regulation of limbic regions. We study this corticolimbic interaction at presynaptic, and postsynaptic and behavioral levels by utilizing microdialysis, single unit recording in awake animals, and operant and maze-based cognitive behavioral measures.
Selected Publications:
Moghaddam, B. Bringing order to the glutamate chaos in schizophrenia, Neuron, 40: 881-884, 2003.
Jackson, M.E., Homayoun, H. and Moghaddam, B. NMDA receptor hypofunction produces concomitant firing rate potentiation and burst activity reduction in the prefrontal cortex, Proc Natl Acad Sci (USA), 101: 8467-8472, 2004.
Stefani, M. and Moghaddam, B. Rule learning and reward contingency are associated with dissociable patterns of dopamine activation in the rat prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum, Journal of Neuroscience, 26:8 810-1118, 2006.
Lecourtier, L., Homayoun, H., Tamagnan, G. and Moghaddam, B. Positive allosteric modulation of metabotropic glutamate 5 (mGlu5) receptors reverses NMDA antagonist-induced alteration of neuronal firing in prefrontal cortex, Biological Psychiatry, 62: 739-746, 2007.
Homayoun, H. and Moghaddam, B. NMDA receptor hypofunction produces opposite effects on prefrontal cortex interneurons and pyramidal neurons. Journal of neuroscience 27: 11496-11500, 2007.
Moghaddam, B. and Homayoun, H. Divergent Plasticity of Prefrontal Cortex networks, Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews, 33: 42-55, 2008.