THE ZULOAGA LAB

Behavioral Neuroscience Lab

We are The Zuloaga Lab, an interdisciplinary Neuroscience Lab based at the University at Albany. Guided by Dr. Damian Zuloaga, we investigate sex differences and the role of gonadal hormones in the regulation of behavioral and hormonal stress responses. Sex differences exist in a number of neuropsychiatric disorders including anxiety, depression, and drug abuse. Gonadal hormones exposure either during development or in adulthood are believed to contribute to these sex differences although the mechanisms for these actions are largely unknown. Our laboratory uses rodents as a model organism to decipher these mechanisms.

Specific interests of our laboratory include:

• Sex differences, sexual differentiation of the central nervous system, and the role of gonadal steroid hormones in regulating stress and mood related behaviors such as anxiety and depression.

• The role of corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) and its primary receptor (CRFR1) in regulating sex differences in anxiety/depressive behaviors and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.

• The role of CRFR1 in postpartum changes in behavior.

• The neural mechanisms that underlie sex-specific alterations in the HPA axis and mood disorders following psychostimulant (e.g. methamphetamine) abuse.