Christopher Howard

Christopher Howard is a Neuroscience faculty member at Oberlin College's College of Arts and Sciences, teaching courses including The Brain: An Introduction to Neuroscience (NSCI 201), Senior Seminar (NSCI 400), and Drugs, Sex, and Rock and Roll: When Pleasures become Problems in the Brain (NSCI 111) through Fall 2025. His research lab investigates dopamine systems and striatal function with implications for movement disorders and addiction.

Education:

• Postdoctoral Research in Neuroscience, Salk Institute for Biological Studies (2013-2017)
• PhD, Illinois State University (2013)
• BS, Illinois State University (2008)

Dr. Howard's research focuses on how dopamine and the striatum regulate behavioral output, with particular interest in Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and drug addiction. His lab employs advanced techniques including fiber photometry, optogenetics, and immunohistochemistry in mouse models to investigate movement, interval timing, and associative learning. Current work explores whether psychedelics and antioxidants might promote neurogenesis of dopamine neurons for Parkinson's treatment.

His recent publications (2016-2023) demonstrate consistent focus on dopamine signaling in the nigrostriatal pathway, with growing emphasis on therapeutic interventions. The work increasingly utilizes optogenetics and fiber photometry to examine neural circuitry underlying habit formation, behavioral flexibility, and movement disorders, showing particular interest in sex-dependent effects of compounds like CBD.

Scientific Recognition:

• Student Haoyuan Gao '24 won Oberlin's 2024 Nexial Prize for interdisciplinary science research
• Student-authored CBD study (led by Caroline Morehouse) named Editors' Pick in Behavioral Brain Research

Dr. Howard actively mentors undergraduate researchers, with students regularly co-authoring publications and presenting work. His lab investigates how striatal dopamine projections contribute to behavioral flexibility and habit formation, with recent work examining sex-dependent effects of CBD. He maintains strong research productivity while teaching both introductory and advanced neuroscience courses.

His neuroscience research lab utilizes cutting-edge techniques including fiber photometry (measuring brain activity via fluorescence), optogenetics (light control of neuronal activity), and operant behaviors in mouse models to investigate dopamine's role in movement, timing, and learning processes.