October 2024:
New publication out today in the Journal of Neuroscience! “Orbitofrontal cortex mediates sustained basolateral amygdala encoding of cued reward seeking states”.
This set of studies spanned a couple universities and several years. Excited that we were able to see it through. We characterize top-down regulation of sustained neural activity in the amygdala, which is critical for maintaining a vigilant reward seeking state during uncertainty.
September 2024:
We are excited to announce new R01 funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse at NIH. This 5-year award, “Basolateral amygdala dopamine in addiction-related learning strategies” will support studies to understand neural mechanisms associated with individual differences in vulnerability to addiction. Grateful for the continued support from NIH! We will be hiring in the coming year to begin progress on these studies.
July 2024:
Carli successfully defended her dissertation this week and we said our goodbyes as she heads to Wesleyan University. We are so lucky to get to work with Carli, thank you to her for everything! Congratulations Dr. Poisson!!!
Congrats to Megan! She was awarded a Center for Neural Circuits in Addiction Pilot grant for her project “Characterization of cocaine effects on valence encoding and brain-wide connectivity of BLA D1-containing neural ensembles”.
Congrats to Louisa for passing her oral prelim exam!!
June 2024:
Check out our latest work, published in Current Biology - Dopamine neurons drive spatiotemporally heterogeneous striatal dopamine signals during learning. Paper here. We characterize how dopamine-mediated learning engages behavioral variability and heterogeneous dopamine signaling across the striatum.
This project was the first thing we started in the lab - congratulations to Liv and Amy, it was a huge effort!
May 2024:
New research preprint is posted on bioRxiv! Valence ambiguity dynamically shapes striatal dopamine heterogeneity. In these studies we find flexible, heterogeneous representations of valence and expected value across dopamine signals in different striatal subregions. Congrats to Kaisa on this cool project!
April 2024:
Congrats to Louisa, she was awarded a MnDrive Neuromodulation Predoctoral Fellowship!
February 2024:
New research published! “Sensory cues potentiate VTA dopamine mediated reinforcement” in eNeuro. Check our the paper here. Also excited to see that we are a “featured article” for the month!
Megan’s F31 NRSA fellowship “Characterizing BLA dopaminergic and glutamatergic mechanisms of dynamic drug seeking” was officially awarded by the NIH! Congrats Megan!!
January 2024:
Our latest research preprint is online! More work with our collaborators at Johns Hopkins. Here we identify sustained, populational-level neural activity in the basolateral amygdala that accompanies cue-invigorated reward seeking under conditions of uncertainty. We also find that inactivation of the orbitofrontal cortex disrupts sustained amygdala activity and reward seeking behavior. Overall this points to a role for OFC-BLA circuits in representing motivational states, which could be disrupted in psychiatric disease conditions. Link to the paper!
December 2023:
Ben presented in a panel at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) meeting in a great session on amygdalar dopamine functions. Kurt Fraser also presented a poster on our recent collaboration!
November 2023:
Megan and Carli presented posters at the Society for Neuroscience - great turnout and feedback!
Another research preprint! Excited to share this collaborative work with our colleagues from Johns Hopkins University. This project uses a novel behavioral task to demonstrate rapid, dynamic revaluation of conditioned stimuli during learning. We found that the mesolimbic dopamine system tracked and was necessary for rapid value shifts, suggesting a core role of the system is moment-to-moment determination of motivation. Congrats to project leader Kurt Fraser and the whole team! Check it out here.
October 2023:
New lab research preprint posted on bioRxiv! We investigate the role of sensory cues in modulating dopamine-mediated reinforcement processes. Check it out here.
August 2023:
Margaret’s F31 NRSA fellowship “Resolving the role of VTA dopamine and GABA neurons in associative learning” was officially awarded by the NIH! Congrats Margaret!!
July 2023:
New lab research posted on bioRxiv! Here we detail some long brewing studies characterizing the progression of learning-related signals across dopamine niches in the striatum. Congrats to project leaders Liv and Amy!!! Check it out here.
June 2023:
Congrats to Margaret for her Medical Discovery Team on Addiction Pilot Grant award!!
May 2023:
We are excited to welcome Louisa Kuper to the lab as a new neuroscience PhD student!
April 2023:
Congrats to Margaret on winning a best poster award at the Minnesota Neuromodulation Symposium!!
December 2022:
We have new R01 funding! This project “Functional architecture of striatal networks in cue-reward learning” is supported by the National Institute on Mental Health. We will be testing predictions about the contribution of different components of midbrain, thalamic, striatal, and cortical circuits to sensory-guided reward seeking. In 2023 we are recruiting new team members to work on these studies! More information on the project here.
November 2022:
We had an amazing turn out to our posters at the Society for Neuroscience! Congrats to Liv, Megan, Carli, Margaret, and Kaisa on such an awesome job presenting.
Ben was a featured speaker at the Brain Imaging in the Bay symposium at UC Berkeley
Ben was interviewed for Psychopharmacology, discussing the lab’s recent publication and general trends in animal models of addiction. Check it out here.
October 2022:
Congrats to Megan for passing her oral prelim exam!!
September 2022:
We have received a new R01 grant “Circuit-level neurodevelopmental trajectories of decision-making computations across adolescence” from the National Institute on Mental Health! This project, in collaboration with Dr. Stephanie Groman, will identify the contributions of key inputs to the orbitofrontal cortex in behavioral flexibility and reward-guided decision making. This is an exciting new direction for the lab. We will be hiring research technicians and post docs in 2023.
New research article published in Psychopharmacology! We demonstrate that intermittent access to cocaine promotes insensitivity to costs. Further, intermittent, binge-and-stop drug seeking motivation comes under the control of hierarchically organized, interacting drug-related cues, which produce individual differences in relapse behaviors. These results underscore the powerful role of the environment in shaping behavior and unique vulnerabilities to addiction.
August 2022:
Congrats to Margaret for passing her oral prelim exam!!
June 2022:
We have 5 abstract submissions in for the 2022 Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego this November. A really exciting line-up of studies!
Margaret was selected for a spot on the UMN NIDA T32 training grant! Congrats Margaret!
April 2022:
Congrats to Megan for receiving an Honorable Mention on her NSF Graduate Research Fellowship!!
March 2022:
Madelyn was awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship. Congrats Madelyn!!!!
Liv, Carli, and Ben attended the Gordon Research Conference on Basal Ganglia in Ventura California. Liv and Carli presented posters, it was a blast!
January 2022:
Carli was awarded an F31 NRSA Fellowship from the NIH. Congrats Carli!!!
November 2021:
New publication from the lab! In this review, we offer a primer to the various functions that meso and nigrostriatal dopamine circuits have in the context of addiction, linking studies from animal models to DSM-derived criteria for substance-use disorders. Congrats to Carli and Liv!
September 2021:
Tim was selected for a slot on the Computational Neuroscience T32 training grant, congrats Tim!
Ben was awarded a Medical Discovery Team on Addiction Pilot Grant, to start a new collaborative project with Dr. David Redish.
May 2021:
Saunders lab is growing!
This month we are excited to welcome two new PhD students to the lab, Margaret Stelzner and Megan Brickner, who are both finishing their first year in the Graduate Program in Neuroscience!
We are also thrilled to welcome a new post doctoral fellow to the lab, Dr. Tim O’Neal! Tim joins us after graduating from the University of Washington, where he investigated nucleus accumbens circuit mechanisms of drug-seeking in Susan Ferguson’s lab.
February 2021:
Congrats to Carli for passing her thesis oral qualifying exam to become a PhD candidate!
Val was awarded an F32 NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Institute on Drug Abuse! Congrats Dr. Collins!!
January 2021:
Saunders lab presented four posters at the Society for Neuroscience Virtual Connectome meeting
July 2020:
Carli has been selected for a slot on the UMN NIDA T32 training grant. Congrats Carli!
Sonal Sinha joins the lab this summer as a visiting research assistant!
May 2020:
Saunders lab “attended” the first annual Virtual Dopamine Conference (ViDA). Val and Liv presented posters. Ben moderated the opening session. Thanks to the organizers for a great event!
April 2020:
Saunders Lab: Quarantine mode. Stay safe everyone.
February 2020:
We have a new review paper, just published! In this article we discuss heterogeneity in the striatal dopamine system, across different levels of anatomy, function, and mechanisms of action. We propose a framework for how dopamine signaling can contribute to a number of diverse behavioral states, via interactions between dopamine neurons and cholinergic interneurons in the striatum. Congrats to first author Val Collins!
December 2019:
Kaisa was awarded an Undergraduate Research Opportunity award from the University!
October 2019:
Val presented a poster at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago. The lab’s first conference presentation!
August 2019:
We have a new research highlight, published in Neuropsychopharmacology!
Val served as co-chair for the Gordon Research Seminar on Catecholamines, congrats!
Ben and Val attended the Gordon Research Conference on Catecholamines.
The lab’s first publication is out in Neuron! We reviewed a recent Cell paper for a Spotlight feature.
July 2019:
Ben visits Japan to give talks at the Japanese Neuroscience Society and Osaka University.
June 2019:
Liv Engel joins the lab as a research technician!
April 2019:
Carli has decided to officially join the lab for her PhD!!
February 2019:
This month we welcome neuroscience graduate student Carli for her rotation in the lab!
January 2019:
Ben gave a talk at the Winter Conference on Brain Research in Snowmass, CO!
Amy attended the DeepLabCut workshop at the Rowland Institute at Harvard. We are excited to use this awesome tool for behavioral analyses!
Congrats to Val Collins for being selected for a postdoctoral slot on the neuroscience department’s NIDA T32 training grant!
Welcome to Michael, Emily, Cassandra, and Kaisa, new undergraduate research assistants joining the lab this term!
November 2018:
Ben was featured on the Inscopix blog!
Saunders lab is headed to the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego Nov 3rd-7th. We are recruiting for 2019, please get in touch if you are interested!
October 2018:
The lab-boo-tory is ready for Halloween
September 2018:
Dr. Val Collins has started in the lab as a postdoctoral fellow!
August 2018:
The lab's primary behavior equipment has arrived! So many boxes!
July 2018:
New research published in Nature Neuroscience!!
"Dopamine neurons create Pavlovian conditioned stimuli with circuit-defined motivational properties". Nature Neuroscience, doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0191-4
June 2018:
Dr. Amy Wolff has started in the lab. Welcome Amy!
We are open for business!
One of our lab benches with some initial equipment and supply purchases. Lots more to buy!
April 2018:
Saunders lab is growing! We have hired two outstanding scientists to join the team later this summer. Dr. Amy Wolff, currently a postdoctoral scientist in the Brain Network Dynamics Unit at Oxford University, will be joining the lab as a Staff Scientist, starting in July. Val Collins, currently a PhD student at UCLA in the lab of Kate Wassum, will be joining the lab as a postdoctoral fellow in late summer. More details to come!
December 2017:
Dr. Saunders is attending the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology conference in Palm Springs Dec 3-7th, where he will present a poster. Anyone attending the meeting who is interested in the lab, please get in touch!
November 2017:
Come see us at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, D.C.! Dr. Saunders will be presenting a poster (QQ12) Tuesday morning on recent work investigating the motivational functions of cue-evoked dopamine neuron signals (as well as a little SaundersLab preview). Anyone interested in joining the lab, please email saunderslab.umn@gmail.com to set up a meeting!
Renovations on the future lab space are underway and there is great progress! Soon it will be all shiny and new and ready for the science to begin!
September 2017:
New preprint on functional heterogeneity in dopamine circuits in Pavlovian conditioned motivation from Ben Saunders, with co-authors Jocelyn Richard, Elyssa Margolis, and Patricia Janak.
