Alexis C. Thompson, PhD
Research Scientist
Psychology
Department of Psychology
College of Arts and Sciences
Contact Information
1021 Main Street
Buffalo, NY 14203-1016
Phone: (716) 887-2219
Email: wwang@ria.buffalo.edu
Primary Research Areas
Substance use and intimate aggression in young people and community couples; youth culture and aggression (especially bullying); children’s participation; methodological/statistical emphases in the social and health sciences research field.
Research Agenda
Dr. Thompson’s research interest lies in neuropeptide regulation of the putative neural circuits involved in the expression of strongly motivated behaviors, including substance abuse disorders and maternal behavior. This research focuses mainly on two families of neuropeptides: gut peptides (e.g., neuropeptide Y and glucagon-like peptide-1) and endogenous opioids. Her current primary line of research focuses on the role of neuropeptide Y in mediating persistent cocaine abuse. A second line of research investigates placentophagia, a behavior that is common to most mammals during delivery of young, and its role in the regulation of endogenous opioid activity in the brain during parturition and then the consequences of this regulation of endogenous opioids to the onset of maternal behavior and pain sensitivity. A third line of research looks for cellular and molecular neural adaptations consequent to chronic drug exposure.
Areas of Expertise
Conceptual
- Experimental psychology
- Behavioral pharmacology
- Cocaine addiction
- Maternal behavior
- Pain and analgesia
- Animal models of pain
- Animal models of psychostimulant abuse and addiction
Methodological
- Behavioral measures of rodent maternal behavior
- Behavioral measures of pain sensitivity (humans and animals)
- Rodent behavioral measures for activity and reactivity
- Electrochemical and immunological methods for the detections and quantification of neurochemicals and hormones,
- Microdialysis methods
- In vitro voltammetry