Avishek Adhikari

Avishek Adhikari serves as Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of California, Los Angeles, within the College of Letters and Science. His research program focuses on elucidating the neural circuit mechanisms underlying emotional behaviors, particularly fear, anxiety, and defensive responses to threats.

Dr. Adhikari's research interests center on the neural substrates of emotional processing and behavior. His laboratory employs advanced techniques including optogenetics, electrophysiology, and sophisticated behavioral paradigms to investigate how specific neural circuits control defensive behaviors. His work particularly examines the roles of the periaqueductal gray, amygdala, hypothalamus, and prefrontal cortex in orchestrating appropriate behavioral responses to threats. The research has significant translational implications for understanding and treating anxiety disorders, PTSD, and other conditions involving maladaptive fear responses.

Analysis of Dr. Adhikari's recent publications reveals a consistent focus on neural circuit mechanisms of defensive behaviors. His work systematically examines how specific pathways, particularly involving the periaqueductal gray and hypothalamus, control different aspects of threat responses including freezing, flight, and defensive aggression. A notable trend is his investigation of how these circuits process both innate and learned threats, and how they interact with systems involved in spatial navigation, decision-making, and habit formation. His 2025 publications particularly highlight work on stress-induced habit formation, hypothalamic control of flight behavior, and hippocampal contributions to spatial coding in neurological disorders.

Dr. Adhikari's research has been supported by NIH T32 Training Grants and other funding mechanisms associated with UCLA's Bioscience programs. His work has garnered substantial attention in the scientific community, with numerous publications in high-impact journals and significant citation counts across his career.

His laboratory operates within UCLA's vibrant neuroscience community, collaborating with researchers across departments including Psychology, Neurobiology, and other bioscience disciplines. The research environment provides access to advanced facilities for neural recording, optogenetic manipulation, and behavioral analysis, supporting the sophisticated experiments described in his publications. His collaborations with prominent researchers including Jonathan Kao, Alcino Silva, and Kate Wassum reflect the interdisciplinary nature of his work.