Research
Cognitive Bias
Our research focuses on understanding negative cognitive bias, a key symptom of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) that worsens with age and is linked to future depressive episodes, especially in women. Current treatments are only partially effective, and the mechanisms behind this bias remain unclear. Using rodent models, we explore sex- and age-specific factors such as neural activity, inflammatory marker levels, neurogenesis, and stress responses and their relation to depressive-like behavior. Our findings show that chronic stress increases negative cognitive bias in both sexes, with sex- and age-related differences in brain activation, neurogenesis, and inflammatory marker levels. Our goal is to deepen the understanding of these mechanisms and develop more effective, personalized treatments for depression-related cognitive symptoms.
We are interested in determining the underlying mechanisms of sex-specific stress-induced behavior across the lifespan in rodents. We use several different types of stressors to create sex and age-specific depressive-like endophenotypes in rodents, and we aim to study these sex and age-specific effects. There are many features/symptoms of depression and not all rodent models of depression are equal. Certain stressors exert more detrimental effects in adolescent animals than in adult animals and vice-versa. Thus, we pay close attention to how each stressor affects depressive-like behavior and physiology differently across age and sex in rodents.
Stress Induced Changes
