Neurobiology of Abnormal Emotion and Motivated Behaviors

Researchers investigating the neurobiology of emotions focus on either animal models or on humans, but rarely work on both. This dichotomy begins at the graduate level, with human and animal laboratories located in different specialties or even different departments, with little to no overlap in coursework. Animal and human laboratories often use parallel experimental techniques, physiological measures, and clinical outcomes, yet there is no interface between animal and human researchers, making collaboration difficult and hampering efforts to translate animal research into treatments for human behavioral dysfunction and maladaptive emotional response in the form of behavioral and psychiatric disorders.

Neurobiology of Abnormal Emotion and Motivated Behaviors is the first book to pull together world-renowned leaders from both animal and human research in a single volume that will aid readers in translating basic science to the clinic. It provides a conceptual framework for how neuroscience can inform our understanding of emotion and motivation, and outlines methodological commonalities between animal and human neuroscience research, with an emphasis on experimental design, physiological recording techniques, and outcome measures to highlight the substantial but under-recognized and underutilized overlaps between research approaches that can help advance collaboration and knowledge.

• Integrates animal and human research to aid readers in discovering a clear path forward for translating basic science to clinical applications
• Provides overviews of the most recent research into the neuroscience behind maladaptive behaviors and psychiatric disorders, and how that science informs diagnoses and treatments
• Explores the commonalities in methods and outcome measures between animal and human researchers and how those commonalities can be harnessed for future collaboration and translational work

Advanced students and researchers in behavioral neuroscience, social and affective neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, and clinical neuroscience

Introduction: Emotion and Motivated Behaviors: Integrating Animal and Human Neurobiology Research

Section 1: Emotion-­related impulsivity across disorders and species
1. Impulsive traits give rise to a wide range of maladaptive behaviors
2. Methods to develop a preclinical model of negative urgency
3. Mood-related impulsivity in the onset and course of mood disorders

Section 2: Impulsivity and stress in eating disorders
4. Trait impulsivity, stress reactivity, and disordered eating behavior
5. Etiology of eating disorders with an emphasis on genetic and neurobiological risk factors
6. Anorexic behavior
7. Eating disorders

Section 3: Interaction of stress and drug-seeking
8. Human bio-behavioral data delineating stress system sensitization as well as cognitive and emotional dysregulation during early abstinence from alcohol and cocaine
9. Interactions between stress- and drug-seeking behaviors
10. Synaptic mechanisms of the behavioral effects of alcohol

Section 4: Learning to inhibit the fear response
11. Insular and prefrontal cortex in aspects of stress mitigation, fear learning, and drug seeking
12. How anxiety affects social behaviors
13. Neural mechanisms of fear relapse
14. Overgeneralization of the fear response to stimuli that have never been associated with an aversive outcome

Section 5: Abnormal emotional reactivity versus regulation across disorders
15. Common affective symptoms that manifest in depression and schizophrenia
16. Abnormal processing of emotional information in major depression
17. Deficits in attention, cognitive control, and emotion regulation in schizophrenia
18. Cognitive impairment and affective deficits across depression and schizophrenia