Avi Adhikari
moattari
Associate Professor
Ph.D.: Columbia University
Primary Area: Behavioral Neuroscience
Address: 8530 Pritzker Hall
Phone: (310) 825-2961
Email: avi@psych.ucla.edu
Research and Teaching Interests:
We investigate how interactions between brain regions orchestrate the constellation of changes related to emotional behaviors, with a focus on fear and anxiety. These multi-faceted changes involve complex and dynamic adaptations in hormonal, physiological and behavioral realms. To dissect these processes in mice we use a combination of powerful techniques including electrophysiology, behavioral assays, optogenetics and calcium imaging to monitor and control neural activity and behavior. Learn more about our research
Representative Publications:
- Adhikari A*, Lerner TN*, Finkelstein J*, Ferenczi E, Guanydin LA, Mirzabekov JJ, Ye L, Kim SY, Pak S, Lei A, Deisseroth K. Basomedial amygdala: deep brain target of prefrontal cortex for top-down control of anxiety and fear. Nature. 2015; 527(7577):179-85 *equal contributions
- Adhikari A. Distributed circuits underlying anxiety. Front BehavNeurosci. 2014; 1;8:112
- Kim SY*, Adhikari A*, Lee SY, Marshel JH, Kim CK, Mallory CS, Lo M, Pak S, Mattis J, Lim BK, Malenka RC, Warden MR, Neve R, Tye KM, Deisseroth K-Diverging neural pathways assemble a behavioural state from separable features in anxiety. Nature. 2012;496:219-223 *equal contributions
- Adhikari A, Topiwala MA, Gordon JA – Single units in the medial prefrontal cortex with anxiety-related firing patterns are preferentially influenced by ventral hippocampal activity- Neuron. 2011; 71(5):898-910
- Adhikari A, Topiwala MA and Gordon JA- Synchronized activity between the ventral hippocampus and the medial prefrontal cortex during anxiety – Neuron. 2010; 65(2):257-269
Dr. Adhikari's lab website