NPP BrainPod
Episodes
Oxytocin neurons in the anterior and posterior paraventricular nucleus have distinct behavioral functions and electrophysiological profiles
23 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Oxytocin has become known for having anti-anxiety and affiliative behavioral effects. That’s why clinicians and researchers are excited about using ...
The genetics of cannabis lifetime use
07 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Cannabis, which is increasingly legally available, both for therapeutic and recreational use, is now one of the most commonly used drugs worldwide.&nb...
Older and wiser? The neural correlates of worry induction and reappraisal in older adults
27 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Worry seems like something most people do from time to time, but for some people, severe worry can become an overwhelming sensation, and for older adu...
Grey matter morphometry in young adult e-cigarette users, tobacco cigarette users & non-using controls
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There’s been a fair amount of animal data suggesting that nicotine can affect the developing brain, but there hadn’t been the equivalent human stu...
Validation of L-type calcium channel blocker amlodipine as a novel ADHD treatment through cross-species analysis, drug-target Mendelian randomization, and clinical evidence from medical records
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a common condition that, for a lot of people, is difficult to treat. The drugs that exist have a...
Rapid and sustained antidepressant effects of vaporized N,N-Dimethyltryptamine: A Phase 2a clinical trial in Treatment-Resistant Depression.
18 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Draulio Araujo, professor at the Brain Institute in the University of Rio Grande Norte in Natal, Brazil, has been studying ayahuasca for more than 20 ...
Endocannabinoid contributions to the perception of socially relevant, affective touch in humans
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
New drugs that target the endocannabinoid system are being proposed for disorders that are usually characterized by the dysregulation of social proces...
Sex differences in sensitivity to dopamine receptor manipulations of risk-based decision making in rats
15 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The scientific literature has shown that females demonstrate more aversion to risk-taking than males. Studies have also demonstrated that the basal la...
Biomarker development for menstrual Cycle affective change: the need for greater temporal, mechanistic, and phenotypic specificity.
02 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The menstrual cycle is known to affect things like mood and changes in pain. But there can also be symptoms that have a serious impact on a person’s...
Genome-wide association studies of coffee intake in UK/US participants of European ancestry uncover cohort-specific genetic associations
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Researchers are interested in understanding the biology of why some people are more likely to overconsume substances. Some substances are difficult to...
C-reactive protein moderates associations between racial discrimination and ventromedial prefrontal cortex activation during attention to threat in Black American women
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists have been amassing an increasing amount of evidence about the impact of racial discrimination and racial trauma, including how it can have ...
Ghrelin decreases sensitivity to negative feedback and increases prediction-error related caudate activity in humans, a randomized controlled trial
06 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a hormone called ghrelin that’s secreted in the stomach, and when someone is hungry it contributes to that feeling of hunger and the need ...
Spotlighting SHAPERS: Sex hormones associated with psychological and endocrine roles
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Nicole Petersen is an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at UCLA. Her commentary is a new paper in the jo...
Comparable roles for serotonin in rats and humans for computations underlying flexible decision-making
04 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Serotonin is a critical chemical when it comes to a number of psychiatric conditions, such as OCD, where it seems to play a particular role in cogniti...
Integrating public health and translational basic science to address challenges of xylazine adulteration of fentanyl
16 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The drug naloxone, otherwise known as Narcan, is a critical tool in reversing fentanyl overdoses and reducing mortality. But now fentanyl is appearing...
The why, when, where, how, and so what of so-called rapidly acting antidepressants
06 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sanjay Mathew is a professor and vice chair for research at Baylor College of Medicine and director of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program. He’s ...
AI-based analysis of social media language predicts addiction treatment dropout at 90 days
23 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In-person treatment for substance use disorders is an incredibly important tool, but there’s a high failure rate — more than 50 percent of people ...
Oxytocin effects on amygdala reactivity to angry faces in males and females with ASPD
21 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Antisocial personality disorder, or ASPD, is a difficult disorder to study. There have been studies on psychopathic individuals, and on youth with psy...
To dismantle structural racism in science, scientists need to learn how it works
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s clear there are diversity issues in science, both in terms of who does or doesn’t receive research grants, as well as who is or isn’t repre...
Low doses of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) increase reward-related brain activity
22 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Psychedelic drugs have received attention recently for their potential use as treatments for psychiatric disorders. Single, high doses of LSD have sho...
Sex-dependent risk factors for PTSD: a prospective structural MRI study
01 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After a traumatic event, women are more likely to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Research has been conducted on what might...
Sex differences in appetitive and reactive aggression
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Maladaptive aggression, while not a diagnosable neuropsychiatric disorder on its own, often presents as an important comorbid condition with other neu...
What’s wrong with my experiment?: The impact of hidden variables on neuropsychopharmacology research
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes, when researchers are conducting an experiment, the results are confusing. Maybe the control group of animals doesn’t behave the way a con...
A scientific approach to navigating the academic job market
09 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kirstie Cummings and Sofia Beas are both new assistant professors in the department of neurobiology at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. When the...
Identification of THC impairment using functional brain imaging
23 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Driving while under the influence of THC, known as drugged driving, is becoming more of an issue as more states legalize cannabis for both medical and...
Evolution of prefrontal cortex
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the past, there had been a school of thought that looked at evolution linearly — that is, you could in theory draw a line among mammals as they e...
Astrocyte-neuron signaling in the mesolimbic dopamine system: the hidden stars of dopamine signaling
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Star-shaped cells called astrocytes are the most abundant cells to be found in the human brain. In the past, they’d been thought to play a supportin...
Neurobiology of loneliness: a systematic review
13 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Loneliness is a subjective experience, but neuroscientists define it as a distress that arrives from a discrepancy between perceived and desired socia...
Medial orbitofrontal cortex dopamine D1/D2 receptors differentially modulate distinct forms of probabilistic decision-making
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It’s known that dopamine transmission in the brain, particularly in the frontal lobes, can affect decision-making and can regulate choices when it c...
Addiction as a brain disease revised: why it still matters, and the need for consilience
21 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly 25 years ago, a paper was published about addiction that transformed the field. The director of the US National Institute on Drug Abuse at the ...
Big data in psychiatry: multiomics, neuroimaging, computational modeling, and digital phenotyping
19 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The world of medicine has been changing rapidly due to the increasing use of ‘big data.’ And there’s been a major revolution in this approach in...
Acute dose-dependent effects of lysergic acid diethylamide in a double-blind placebo-controlled study in healthy subjects
19 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Interest is growing in the use of the psychedelic drug LSD for psychiatric research and even potentially for treatment. But placebo-controlled studies...
Big behavior: challenges and opportunities in a new era of deep behavior profiling
04 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists who study neuropsychiatric conditions and treatments often use rodent models to do so. From depression to anxiety to memory impairment and ...
Leveraging large genomic datasets to illuminate the pathobiology of autism spectrum disorders
23 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The application of the study of genetics and the use of big data to identify patterns of inheritance as well as de novo mutations has had a dramatic i...
Pubertal adversity alters chromatin dynamics and stress circuitry in the pregnant brain
10 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It’s understood in epidemiological research that women who experience trauma during puberty are at significantly higher risk for affective disorders...
Social networking and mental health: looking beyond frequency of use and towards mechanisms of action
15 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past decades, there’s clearly been a dramatic increase in the amount of time people spend online using social networking sites. For instanc...
Distinct acute effects of LSD, MDMA, and D-amphetamine in healthy subjects
06 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A number of drugs that are used recreationally are now being studied for their use in psychopharmacology. But while the ways in which these drugs are ...
Chronic opioid pretreatment potentiates the sensitization of fear learning by trauma
17 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It’s known that there’s a relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and a higher rate of opioid abuse. What isn’t understood...
Effects of MDMA on attention to positive social cues and pleasantness of affective touch.
19 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The recreational drug MDMA, also known as Ecstasy or Molly, is particularly popular in social settings and raves, in large part because of how sociall...
Superolateral medial forebrain bundle deep brain stimulation in major depression: a gateway trial.
16 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Depression is an incredibly important disorder—according to Thomas Schlaepfer, head of the department of interventional biological psychiatry at the...
Cues play a critical role in estrous cycle-dependent enhancement of cocaine reinforcement
17 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Research has demonstrated that, overall, women are more vulnerable to drug addiction than men are. They become addicted more quickly after first using...
Food Addiction: A Valid Concept?
08 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past decade, the use of the term 'food addiction' to describe an unhealthy approach to eating has grown. It refers to the idea that, for some...
Sex Matters
15 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As our environment becomes ever increasingly complex, understanding how sex differences impact disease risk and resilience will only become more criti...
Recent advances in the study of aggression
16 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Aggression is an evolutionary behavior seen throughout the animal world. When it comes to humans, however, some forms of aggression can be seen as pat...
Neurocognitive effects of umami: association with eating behavior and food choice
14 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
While the influence of sweet taste on neurocognitive function has been widely studied, umami or savory has received less of a research focus. Animal m...
Burst activation of dopamine neurons produces prolonged post-burst availability of actively released dopamine.
13 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For years now, scientists have noticed a rather strange phenomenon in animal models: scientists would stimulate dopamine production in the brain, but ...
Debating the Persistence of Neurogenesis in Humans
24 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The question of whether neurogenesis persists in humans and for how long -- that is, whether and where humans grow new neurons in their brains, and ho...
Considerations for the Use of DREADDs in Behavioral Neuroscience
16 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There's a technology that's proven to be increasingly useful in the past decade -- it's called DREADD, or "designer receptors exclusively activated by...
Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews: Cannabis and Cannabinoids: From Synapse to Society
12 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The 2018 issue of Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews, "Cannabis and Cannabinoids: From Synapse to Society," showcases the remarkable advances in the biol...
Opioid Release after High-Intensity Interval Training in Healthy Human Subjects
10 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Many people who exercise regularly have experienced a so-called "runner's high," either a feeling of euphoria after exercise, or a feeling of happines...
Opioid Self-Administration is Attenuated by Early-Life Experience and Gene Therapy for Anti-Inflammatory IL-10 in the Nucleus Accumbens of Male Rats
13 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Studies have shown that stress and trauma early in life can lead to an increased risk for drug addiction later in life. In rat models developed to mim...
Beta-Adrenoceptor Blockade in the Basolateral Amygdala, But Not the Medial Prefrontal Cortex, Rescues the Immediate Extinction Deficit
13 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
One method of treating Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involves extinction therapy, but researchers have found that the timing of such therapy i...
Arbaclofen in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder
12 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Autism Spectrum Disorder is a disorder that has been defined by the medical community, but so far, none of the medications available for ASD treat the...
The Gateway Hypothesis of Addiction
15 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The National Institutes of Health recently published a statement requiring sex as a biological variable in studies. This is in part simply because it'...
Sex as a Biological Variable: Who, What, When, Why, and How
12 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The National Institutes of Health recently published a statement requiring sex as a biological variable in studies. This is in part simply because it'...
Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews: The Immunology of Behavior - Exploring the Role of the Immune System in Brain Health and Illness
02 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The 2017 issue of Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews, "The Immunology of Behavior focuses on the growing appreciation of the immune system in understandi...
LSD Acutely Impairs Fear Recognition and Enhances Emotional Empathy and Sociality
07 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
LSD is not only a well-known psychedelic drug, but it was also studied extensively for its potential in psychotherapy in the early days of its use, ab...
Harnessing Smartphone-Based Digital Phenotyping to Enhance Behavioral and Mental Health
12 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Smartphones have become nearly ubiquitous in the United States. These mini-computers that we carry around in our bags or pockets have the potential to...
Women at the Podium: ACNP Strives to Reach Speaker Gender Equality at the Annual Meeting
21 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Lately, scientists have begun to pay closer attention to the numbers of men and women who present at scientific meetings. Even in those fields where w...
Abuse of New Psychoactive Substances: Threats and Solutions
09 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
There has been a recent and notable increase in the non-medical use of new psychoactive substances (NPS), or "designer drugs." Unlike classic drugs of...
Does Cannabis Cause, Exacerbate or Ameliorate Psychiatric Disorders? An Oversimplified Debate Discussed
12 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Marijuana use for medical purposes is becoming increasingly common in the U.S., and doctors prescribe it for ills ranging from headaches to insomnia. ...
Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews: Impact of Stress on the Brain: Pathology, Treatment and Prevention
10 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
"Impact of Stress on the Brain: Pathology, Treatment and Prevention," the 2016 issue of Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews, focuses on advances in our un...
Caffeine consumption in adolescents
08 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Adolescent consumption of caffeine, the most commonly used psychoactive stimulant in the world, has increased strikingly in recent years. Caffeine use...
Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews: Neurodevelopment and the Origins of Brain Disorders
08 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In this issue of Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews, entitled Neurodevelopment and the Origins of Brain Disorders, subject discipline experts provide bot...
The value of alcohol
03 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The relative value of alcohol may be encoded by discrete regions of the brain, according to a study published in Neuropsychopharmacology. Using functi...
Brain changes in young smokers
03 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Young adult smokers may experience alterations in brain structure related to cigarette exposure, dependence, and craving. The brain structure of adult...
Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews: Biomolecular Discovery: Mechanisms, Therapeutics, and Biomarkers in Neural Disorders
09 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The 2014 issue of Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews is entitled Biomolecular Discovery: Mechanisms, Therapeutics, and Biomarkers in Neural Disorders. Th...
Smoking throughout pregnancy may contribute to emotional problems in children
07 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Up to 25% of women in the U.S., Denmark and Sweden report smoking during pregnancy, despite associations of prenatal tobacco exposure with negative be...
HIV infection may raise risk of cocaine abuse
15 Aug 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Although psychostimulant abusers comprise one of the fastest growing populations of HIV-infected patients, relatively little is known about how HIV ma...
A taste of alcohol
20 May 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. David Kareken discusses how the urge to drink can be triggered by sensory cues alone. His latest research showed that a dopamine reaction took pla...
Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews: Epigenetics
30 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Epigenetics is the modification of genetic expression without changing the underlying DNA, or how environment affects genetic potential. It is highly ...
Bath salts
21 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Mephedrone and methylone are types of synthetic stimulant drugs that have been sold legally under names such as "bath salts" or "plant food". They can...
Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews: Neurotherapeutics
18 Jan 2012
Contributed by Lukas
The brain is a daunting therapeutic challenge. This year's edition of Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews provides an update on treatments for brain disor...