Faculty & Research

Joyce Besheer, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies

Department of Psychiatry

Office | 1025 Thurston-Bowles Bldg, CB#7178

Email | jbesheer@med.unc.edu

Lab Website | Behavioral Pharmacology

Research Interests

My research interests include studying the neurobiological mechanisms underlying alcoholism and addiction.  My major area of interest is the neurobiology of ethanol’s stimulus properties.  All drugs of abuse share the common attribute that they produce subjective stimulus effects in humans (e.g., the feeling of “drunkenness” that accompanies alcohol drinking).  These subjective effects contribute to drug taking behavior.  We are presently using behavioral pharmacology and immunohistochemistry techniques to examine the involvement of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) in ethanol’s stimulus properties (K01 Award).  Another area of interest is the neurobiology of ethanol reinforcement using animal models of ethanol self-administration.  Using a multidisciplinary approach we are investigating the involvement of mGluRs in ethanol reinforcement and in the motivation to self-administer ethanol.  Together, studying mechanisms involved in ethanol’s stimulus properties and ethanol 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.

Center Line Articles

 

Recent Publications

Click here for a full list of publications from PubMed

Besheer J, Schroeder JP, Stevenson RA, Hodge CW.  Ethanol-induced alterations of c-Fos immunoreactivity in specific limbic brain regions following ethanol discrimination training.Brain Res. 2008 Sep 26;1232:124-31.

Schroeder JP, Spanos M, Stevenson JR, Besheer J, Salling M, Hodge CW. Cue-induced reinstatement of alcohol-seeking behavior is associated with increased ERK1/2 phosphorylation in specific limbic brain regions: blockade by the mGluR5 antagonist MPEP. Neuropharmacology. 2008 Sep;55(4):546-54.

Stevenson JR, Schroeder JP, Nixon K, Besheer J, Crews FT, Hodge CW. Abstinence following Alcohol Drinking Produces Depression-Like Behavior and Reduced Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Mice.Neuropsychopharmacology. 2008 Jun 18.

Besheer J, Faccidomo S, Grondin JJ, Hodge CW. Effects of mGlu1-receptor blockade on ethanol self-administration in inbred alcohol-preferring rats. Alcohol. 2008 Feb;42(1):13-20.

Besheer J, Faccidomo S, Grondin JJ, Hodge CW. Regulation of motivation to self-administer ethanol by mGluR5 in alcohol-preferring (P) rats.

Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2008 Feb;32(2):209-21.

Stevenson RA, Besheer J, Hodge CW. Comparison of ethanol locomotor sensitization in adolescent and adult DBA/2J mice. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2008 Apr;197(3):361-70.

Wilkie MB, Besheer J, Kelley SP, Kumar S, O'Buckley TK, Morrow AL, Hodge CW.
Acute ethanol administration rapidly increases phosphorylation of conventional protein kinase C in specific mammalian brain regions in vivo. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2007 Jul;31(7):1259-67.

Besheer J, Stevenson RA, Hodge CW. mGlu5 receptors are involved in the discriminative stimulus effects of self-administered ethanol in rats. Eur J Pharmacol. 2006 Dec 3;551(1-3):71-5. Epub 2006 Sep 8.

Parnell SE, Dehart DB, Wills TA, Chen SY, Hodge CW, Besheer J, Waage-Baudet HG, Charness ME, Sulik KK. Maternal oral intake mouse model for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders: ocular defects as a measure of effect. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2006 Oct;30(10):1791-8. 

Besheer J, Lepoutre V, Mole B, Hodge CW. GABAA receptor regulation of voluntary ethanol drinking requires PKCepsilon. Synapse. 2006 Nov;60(6):411-9.