Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

The primary interest of this laboratory is to understand the interaction of hormonal and neural mechanisms that increase sensitivity to drug abuse and depression in adolescents and females. One current focus is studying the influence of gonadal steroids estrogen and testosterone on dopamine mechanisms that contribute to self-administration of and behavioral responses to addictive drugs like cocaine and ethanol. The second is understanding what neural processes underlie addiction risk during adolescence and the modulation of these processes puberty. We are using a multidisciplinary approach to these problems which includes studying the behavioral response of rats to addictive drugs, the effects of gonadal steroids and other hormones on dopamine neuron survival and function and the activation of neural circuits by rewarding and aversive stimuli. We are also using in vitro model systems to study estrogen and testosterone action on monoamine neurons in the brain.

Ph.D., Duke University, 1976

B.A., Stanford University, 1970

Schramm-Sapyta NL, Kingsley KA, Rezvani AH, Propst K , Swartzwelder HS, Kuhn CM. Early Ethanol Consumption Predicts Relapse-like Behavior in Adolescent Male Rats, Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research, 2008 May;32(5):754-62. Epub 2008 Mar 11.

Parylak SL, Caster JM, Walker QD, Kuhn CM. Gonadal steroids mediate the opposite changes in cocaine-induced locomotion across adolescence in male and female rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2008 May;89(3):314-23. Epub 2008 Jan 16.

Walker QD and Kuhn CM. Cocaine increases stimulated dopamine release more in periadolescent than adult rats. Neurotoxicology and Teratology 2008 Sep-Oct;30(5):412-8. Epub 2008 Apr 22.