Rapid-acting antidepressants on motivation and neural circuit activity in depression and mood disorders

Cognitive and mood symptoms in chronic mental health conditions, like depression and bipolar disorder, are associated with poor functional outcomes, low recovery rates and poor quality of life. Identifying and understanding the neural processes that are disrupted and underlie the cognitive and behavioural symptoms remains a challenge. Yet, this fundamental knowledge is key for driving the development of new and better treatments that are more effective, have less side effects and, importantly, work for people whose symptoms don’t currently respond to existing treatments.

The ability to measure complex behaviour and identify cause-and-effect mechanisms using preclinical animal models, combined with cutting-edge behavioural and neural imaging systems, and in vivo pharmacology, provides advanced experimental approaches to tackle this challenge.

This project involves the use of mouse models that display disrupted motivated behaviours, in vivo imaging approaches to identify changes in neural activity during behaviour, and in vivo pharmacology to investigate treatment approaches to restore cognitive and neural deficits.