# Corticoamygdalar regulation of stimulus-outcome memory

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2021 · $40,532

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Substance use disorder is a chronic, relapsing brain disease characterized by poor decision making, often in the
presence of drug-associated cues. Indeed, such cues can elicit cravings and drug seeking, despite known
negative consequences of drug use (e.g., illness, overdose). Addictive substances are thought to hijack the brain
systems that normally support adaptive motivated behavior, resulting in maladaptive drug-seeking behavior.
Thus they may produce maladaptive drug seeking by causing dysfunction in the brain’s ability to retrieve the
stimulus-outcome associative memories that are crucial for mentally simulating (i.e., representing) possible
future rewarding and aversive outcomes. But very little is known of the neural circuitry that enables these
stimulus-outcome memories and even less about the systems that allow these memories to adapt following a
shift in the predicted outcome’s value. In order to gain insight into how pathological states arise and determine
what can be done to combat them, the goal of this research is to elucidate the brain mechanisms that support
the retrieval of stimulus-outcome value memories and the use of such memories to promote adaptive behavior
following a negative experience with the predicted reward.
 Recent studies in rodents and humans have indicated that the basolateral amygdala is a brain region crucial
for stimulus-outcome associative memories, but the neural circuitry through which it achieves this function is
unknown. I will conduct a critical, in-depth, and hypothesis-driven investigation of the contribution of the
basolateral amygdala and its reciprocal connections with the medial orbitofrontal cortex, a region critical for
considering potential future outcomes during decision making, in the retrieval of stimulus-outcome memories
and use of these memories to guide adaptive behavior when a once-pleasurable event has become aversive. I
will receive training in projection-specific chemogenetic manipulation, projection-specific activity monitoring, and
behavioral procedures with translational relevance to symptoms of human mental illness to uncover the function
of basolateral amygdala-medial orbitofrontal cortex loops in adaptive motivated behavior. I have selected
sponsors to provide training on each technical and intellectual aspect of the project, and on career advancement
more broadly. Further, completing this project at UCLA ensures I will have access to a highly collaborative
network of leading neuroscientists to receive project feedback and any additional training as needed. This award
will provide training to help launch me into an independent career as an addiction neuroscientist studying how
addictive substances hijack the brain systems that evolved to support adaptive motivated behavior.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10315218
- **Project number:** 1F31DA053104-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Alexander Lamparelli
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $40,532
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-11 → 2024-09-10

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10315218

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10315218, Corticoamygdalar regulation of stimulus-outcome memory (1F31DA053104-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10315218. Licensed CC0.

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