Research Interests
My research interests include studying the neurobiological mechanisms underlying alcoholism and addiction. My major area of interest is the neurobiology of the subjective/interoceptive effects of alcohol and alcohol drinking. All drugs of abuse share the common attribute that they produce subjective/interoceptive effects in humans (e.g., the feeling of “drunkenness” or lightheadedness that accompanies alcohol drinking). These subjective effects can contribute to drug taking behavior. Our preclinical work takes a multidisciplinary approach, including behavioral pharmacology and immunohistochemistry techniques, to examine how stress can impact the subjective effects of alcohol and alcohol drinking, with a focus on the involvement of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs). Together, studying mechanisms involved in how stress can modulate the subjective effects of alcohol and alcohol reinforcement has numerous implications for the development of therapeutic interventions in alcoholism and for identifying factors that influence pathological behavioral processes in addiction, such as drug taking and relapse.
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Center Line Articles
Recent Publications
Click here for a full list of publications from PubMed
Increased sensitivity to alcohol induced changes in ERK Map kinase phosphorylation and memory disruption in adolescent as compared to adult C57BL/6J mice. Spanos M, Besheer J, Hodge CW. Behav Brain Res. 2012 Apr 21;230(1):158-66. Epub 2012 Feb 13.
Intra-amygdala inhibition of ERK(1/2) potentiates the discriminative stimulus effects of alcohol. Besheer J, Fisher KR, Cannady R, Grondin JJ, Hodge CW. Behav Brain Res. 2012 Mar 17;228(2):398-405. Epub 2011 Dec 23.
The effects of repeated corticosterone exposure on the interoceptive effects of alcohol in rats. Besheer J, Fisher KR, Grondin JJ, Cannady R, Hodge CW. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2012 Apr;220(4):809-22. Epub 2011 Oct 21.
Activation of group II metabotropic glutamate receptors inhibits the discriminative stimulus effects of alcohol via selective activity within the amygdala. Cannady R, Grondin JJ, Fisher KR, Hodge CW, Besheer J. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2011 Oct;36(11):2328-38. doi: 10.1038/npp.2011.121. Epub 2011 Jul 6.
Pregnenolone and ganaxolone reduce operant ethanol self-administration in alcohol-preferring p rats. Besheer J, Lindsay TG, O'Buckley TK, Hodge CW, Morrow AL. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2010 Dec;34(12):2044-52.
Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 activity in the nucleus accumbens is required for the maintenance of ethanol self-administration in a rat genetic model of high alcohol intake. Besheer J, Grondin JJ, Cannady R, Sharko AC, Faccidomo S, Hodge CW. Biol Psychiatry. 2010 May 1;67(9):812-22.
Suppression of heavy drinking and alcohol seeking by a selective ALDH-2 inhibitor. Arolfo MP, Overstreet DH, Yao L, Fan P, Lawrence AJ, Tao G, Keung WM, Vallee BL, Olive MF, Gass JT, Rubin E, Anni H, Hodge CW, Besheer J, Zablocki J, Leung K, Blackburn BK, Lange LG, Diamond I. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2009 Nov;33(11):1935-44.
Interoceptive effects of alcohol require mGlu5 receptor activity in the nucleus accumbens. Besheer J, Grondin JJ, Salling MC, Spanos M, Stevenson RA, Hodge CW. J Neurosci. 2009 Jul 29;29(30):9582-91.
Preclinical evaluation of riluzole: assessments of ethanol self-administration and ethanol withdrawal symptoms. Besheer J, Lepoutre V, Hodge CW. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2009 Aug;33(8):1460-8.
Increased operant responding for ethanol in male C57BL/6J mice: specific regulation by the ERK1/2, but not JNK, MAP kinase pathway. Faccidomo S, Besheer J, Stanford PC, Hodge CW. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2009 May;204(1):135-47. |
Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill