Towards neurobehavioral profiles of resilient and drug addicted rats (A05)

• Subject Area: Biological Psychiatry
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 402170461

In the 1st FP, we acquired prospective intensive longitudinal data (ILD) sets in rat models of alcohol addiction and cocaine addiction to predict disease onset and progression in alcohol addiction in a sex-dependent manner. In the 2nd FP we will further use these behavioral ILD sets in conjunction with neuroimaging data to characterize neurobehavioral profiles of addiction-resilient and addiction-prone rats. We will ask: Are there any structural, functional, and/or molecular brain signatures in drug-naïve individuals that can predispose them to a subsequent addiction-resilient or addiction-prone phenotype? To answer this research question, we will use a highly translational, prospective multi-modal neuroimaging approach to assess longitudinally structural, functional and molecular brain changes in a drug-naïve state, at disease onset, and in an addicted-like state.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 265: Losing and Regaining Control over Drug Intake: From Trajectories to Mechanisms to Interventions
• Applicant Institution: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
• Project Heads: Privatdozent Dr. Hamid Reza Noori, until 6/2023; Professor Dr. Rainer Spanagel