Marina Picciotto, PhD

Charles B. G. Murphy Professor of Psychiatry and Professor in the Child Study Center, of Neuroscience and of Pharmacology

• Psychiatry

  Professor

  Primary

  Psychiatry

• Neuroscience

  Professor

  Secondary

  Neuroscience

• Pharmacology

  Professor

  Secondary

  Pharmacology

Other Departments & Organizations

• Activity of the VTA-to-VP GABA pathway scales with the value of a primary reward

  (A) Heatmap of calcium-dependent fluorescence signals in VTA-to-VP GABA neurons across 5 CRT sessions on consecutive days. Signals were aligned to the time of magazine entry (0 sec). (B) The area under the curve (AUC) of fluorescence signals measured from (A). Upper panel shows the fluorescence change across 5 sessions. Lower panel shows the AUCs calculated from the upper panel curves from 0 – 5 sec (grey area). Each dot represents the averaged AUC of the fluorescence signals measured in one mouse in one session. One-way ANOVA of the signal AUC across 5 sessions: F(4, 30) = 0.034; p = 0.998. N = 7 mice. (C) Heatmap of fluorescence signals in terminals of VTA-to-VP GABA neurons during FR1 responding to different sizes of reward (reward delivery for 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 sec). (D) The AUC of fluorescence signals measured from (C). Upper panel shows the fluorescence change in response to different sizes of reward. Lower panel shows the AUCs calculated from the upper panel curves.
• Acetylcholine (ACh) levels in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) during reward learning

  Heatmap of BLA ACh signaling in a mouse across training phases of a reward learning task, aligned to tone onset (Tone), correct nose poke (NP), and receptacle entry (Rec). Each row is the average of rewarded trials across a training session. White dashed horizontal line: first Training day earning 10 rewards. Horizontal white line: acquisition threshold, when a mouse began to earn 20 rewards consistently in Training. Black horizontal lines: divisions between training phases. Black vertical lines: divisions between breaks in time to allow for variable latencies in tone onset, correct nose poke, and receptacle entry (reward retrieval).
• Nicotine exposure during development persistently alters the structure of cortical neurons. Knock down of Ash2l or Mef2c prevents this remodeling.

• c-fos activity is induced by nicotine in POMC neurons of the hypothalamus under conditions leading to decreased food intake.

• Localization of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) at the level of the striatum and ventral segmental area measured by nicotinic binding in wild type (left), knockout and inducible transgenic mice.

  Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) measured by nicotinic binding in wild type (left), knockout and inducible transgenic mice. Localized expression of high affinity nAChRs in ventral tegmental neurons (right) is important for normal nicotine-induced locomotor activation.
• Localization of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) at the level of the thalamus and cortex measured by nicotinic binding in wild type (left), knockout and inducible transgenic mice.

  Localized expression of high affinity nAChRs in layer 6 corticothalamic neurons (right) is important for normal passive avoidance learning.