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John
J. Curtin
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Associate
Professor of Psychology
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Ph.D.
(Clinical Psychology)
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Research
Interests:
Broadly,
my research examines connections between drug use (currently alcohol
and nicotine) use and alterations in emotional response, cognition and
behavior. Results from this research have direct implications for
understanding both reinforcing and detrimental consequences of these
drugs and the mechanisms responsible for their effects. Moreover,
current work in my laboratory is examining individual differences in
these basic mechanisms (e.g., variations in stress reducing negative
reinforcement, increased sensitivity of cognitive systems) to
understand how genetic/heritable risk for the development of clinical
alcohol and drug use disorders is conferred. My recent and near-term
future projects are organized around 4 research goals. Specifically:
1. Delineation of alcohol’s acute effect on emotional response (with an emphasis on fear and anxiety) and elucidation of the underlying mechanisms for these effects. This work examines the mediation of the alcohol-emotion connection by acute, alcohol-induced deficits in cognitive processes and neural systems. Examination of the alcohol-emotion nexus may advance understanding of the motives for alcohol use among social users and the mechanisms which support disordered use among alcohol dependent individuals.
2. Exploration of the impact (and mechanisms) of drug withdrawal on emotional response. This work examines both tonic (ongoing) increased negative affect and phasic (brief and intermittent) increased stressor-elicited negative affective response associated with the drug withdrawal process. The focus of this work is on understanding the contribution of withdrawal-induced alterations in emotion to risk for drug use relapse.
3. Examination of alcohol’s acute effect on cognitive processes. Recent evidence from our laboratory suggests that alcohol’s effect on cognitive control and related executive functions may account for the behavioral outcomes associated with acute alcohol intoxication (e.g., increased aggressivity, sexual risk taking and other forms of impulsive behavior). This work utilized event related brain potentials (ERPs) to examine the cognitive mechanisms responsible for these behavioral outcomes.
4. Explanation of the mechanisms through which risk for alcohol and drug dependence is conferred. Substantial evidence indicates genetic variation in risk for the development of alcohol and drug use disorders. However, such observations beg the question of the mechanisms through which genetic variation affects risk status. To address this, individuals at risk for the development of alcohol use disorders are recruited to determine if differential sensitivity to acute alcohol challenge and withdrawal effects on cognitive processes and emotional response mediate genetic risk. A multidimensional approach to the assessment of risk status incorporating family history of dependence, personality traits (e.g. increased negative emotionality and impulsivity) and potential endophenotypic markers (e.g., decreased P3 of the event related potential waveform) is utilized.
More detailed description of these research goals
is also available.
Research Interests (extended)
