Publications
Chitre AS, Polesskaya O, Holl K, Gao J, Cheng R, Bimschleger H, Garcia Martinez A, George T, Gileta AF, Han W, Horvath A, Hughson A, Ishiwari K, King CP, Lamparelli A, Versaggi CL, Martin C, St Pierre CL, Tripi JA, Wang T, Chen H, Flagel SB, Meyer P, Richards J, Robinson TE, Palmer AA, & Solberg Woods LC. (2020). Genome-wide association study in 3,173 outbred rats identifies multiple loci for body weight, adiposity, and fasting glucose. Obesity (Silver Spring), 28(10): 1964-1973. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22927
Obesity is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Despite the success of human genome-wide association studies, the specific genes that confer obesity remain largely unknown. The objective of this study was to use outbred rats to identify the genetic loci underlying obesity and related morphometric and metabolic traits.
Haight JL, Campus P, Maria-Rios CE, Johnson AM, Klumpner MS, Kuhn BN, Covelo IR, Morrow JD, & Flagel SB. (2020). The lateral hypothalamus and orexinergic transmission in the paraventricular thalamus promote the attribution of incentive salience to reward-associated cues. Psychopharmacology (Berl)., 237(12):3741-3758. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-020-05651-4
Prior research suggests that the neural pathway from the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) to the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) mediates the attribution of incentive salience to Pavlovian reward cues. However, a causal role for the LHA and the neurotransmitters involved have not been demonstrated in this regard.
Colaizzi JM, Flagel SB, Joyner MA, Gearhardt AN, Stewart JL, & Paulus MP. (2020). Mapping sign-tracking and goal-tracking onto human behaviors. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 111:84-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.01.018
As evidenced through classic Pavlovian learning mechanisms, environmental cues can become incentivized and influence behavior. These stimulus-outcome associations are relevant in everyday life but may be particularly important for the development of impulse control disorders including addiction. Rodent studies have elucidated specific learning profiles termed ‘sign-tracking’ and ‘goal-tracking’ which map onto individual differences in impulsivity and other behaviors associated with impulse control disorders’ etiology, course, and relapse. Whereas goal-trackers are biased toward the outcome, sign-trackers fixate on features that are associated with but not necessary for achieving an outcome; a pattern of behavior that often leads to escalation of reward-seeking that can be maladaptive. The vast majority of the sign- and goal-tracking research has been conducted using rodent models and very few have bridged this concept into the domain of human behavior. In this review, we discuss the attributes of sign- and goal-tracking profiles, how these are manifested neurobiologically, and how these distinct learning styles could be an important tool for clinical interventions in human addiction.
