Skip to main content
Department of Psychology Psychology
  1. HOME
  2. People
  3. profiles
  4. Stephan Anagnostaras

Stephan Anagnostaras

Associate Professor

The general goal of research in my laboratory is to combine molecular-genetic, systems, and cognitive-behavioral levels to understand how the brain produces behavior and cognition. Working primarily with mice, we focus on three areas: (1) memory consolidation and the substrates of permanent memory, specifically how hippocampus-dependent memory is transformed and stored permanently over many weeks or months, (2) fear and anxiety, including fear memory, and genetic contributions to fear and anxiety, and (3) memories governing addiction, specifically the role of "memory genes" in stimulant sensitization. A related line of research will examine the role of genetics in exceptional memory and intelligence. The overall focus of the lab then is to understand how memory is produced from the interplay of genes, neural systems, behavior, and cognition. Please see the lab webpage http://mocolab.org for a more detailed description of these projects.
  • Carmack S.A., Kim J.S., Sage J.R., Thomas A.W., Skillicorn K.N., Anagnostaras, S.G. (2013). The competitive NMDA receptor antagonist CPP disrupts cocaine-induced conditioned place preference, but spares behavioral sensitization.  Behav Brain Res. 239, 155-63.
  • Shuman T., Cai D.J., Sage J.R., Anagnostaras S.G. (2012), Interactions between modafinil and cocaine during the induction of conditioned place preference and locomotor sensitization in mice: Implications for addiction. Behavioural Brain Research, 235, 105-12.
  • Wood S.C., & Anagnostaras S.G. (2011), Interdependence of measures in Pavlovian conditioned freezing. Neuroscience Letters, 505, 134-9.

Updated Jan 2013