Area Contact: Gorica Petrovich—Neurobiology of motivation and feeding behavior; functional organization of the brain systems mediating environmental control of food intake, specifically interactions between the amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and hypothalamus; modulation of hunger and satiety mechanisms by learning and stress.

Michael Numan—Neurobiology of motivation, emotion, and social behavior; specifically neurobiology of parental behavior in rodents and the effects of hormones and experience on the relevant hypothalamic, limbic, and striatal circuits.

Alexa Veenema—Stress and Social Behavior: understanding the neurobiological regulation of social behaviors (play-fighting, aggression, social cognition, and social anxiety), modulation of social behaviors by early life stress, role of neuropeptides (vasopressin,oxytocin) in social behaviors.

For information on the Neuroscience Ph.D. track, see this description in the Graduate Program Handbook.