In nations around the globe, systems of primary and secondary education have gradually been making an important transition: from those that traditionally set special-needs children apart (when it served these young people at all) to school systems in which such children are “mainstreamed”—brought into classes to take their place among their peers.
Head of Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Gregorio Marañón University General Hospital
2005 Independent Investigator Grant
Research that was initially focused on fear, anxiety, and defensive behaviors has resulted in a series of unexpected discoveries that have shed new light on eating behaviors, and, possibly, on eating disorders involving both compulsive eating when already “full” as well as aversion to food even when hungry.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology
University of California, Los Angeles
2018 Young Investigator Grant
Fernando Midea Cuccovia V Reis, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Psychology at UCLA. Dr. Reis received his Ph.D. in Psychobiology from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, investigating the neural bases underlying healthy and pathological states of fear and anxiety. His research focuses on characterizing neural mechanisms that control survival behaviors and underlie different emotional states. Combining the use of neural recording techniques and optogenetics in rodents, his current research aims to characterize how basic neural mechanisms related to positive and negative motivations interact during compulsive food-seeking behaviors. By decoding brain states using calcium imaging in the midbrain, he will identify patterns of activity specifically related to processing of negative and positive events associated to compulsive overeating. Using optogenetic techniques to manipulate cell activity, he will test causal relations between the midbrain neural activity and the occurrences of avoidant, appetitive and consummatory behaviors.
Assistant Professor, Psychology
Member, Brain Research Institute, Molecular, Cellular & Integrative Physiology GPB Home Area, Neuroscience GPB Home Area
University of California, Los Angeles
2014 Young Investigator Grant
Dr. Adhikari joined UCLA’s Psychology Department in 2016, following postdoctoral training at Stanford University with Prof. Karl Deisseroth and Ph.D. studies at Columbia University with Prof. Joshua A. Gordon and Prof. Rene Hen.
Dr. Adhikari’s lab investigates how the brain coordinates 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. Dr. Adhikari dissects how interactions between different brain structures control these processes, seeking insights that shed light on the neural basis of pathological anxiety disorders and adaptive aversion to danger. To do so 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 at his lab website.
