Dr Todor Gerdjikov

PhD Queen's University (Canada)

The overall goal of my research is to characterize how the mesolimbic system of the brain encodes cognitive processes and implements motivated behavior. My focus is on exploring how normal functioning of these brain circuits is sustained and what alterations are associated with preclinical models of psychostimulant addiction and psychosis. For example we recently carried out neurophysiological studies aimed at understanding the brain abnormalities underlying the rat phencyclidine model of schizophrenia. I am further interested in fundamental aspects of attention and motivation which may be compromised in these models. We also use viral-based circuit tracing approaches using transgenic rats to characterize how the mesolimbic system underlies attentional processes including vigilance and reward prediction error.

preclinical models of neuropsychiatric disorders

Behavioral Neuroscience
Behavioral Statistics and Research Methods
Current Topics in Cognitive Neuroscience
Psychopharmacology