معرفی
Geoffrey Schoenbaum, M.D., Ph.D., serves as a Distinguished Investigator and Chief of the Cellular and Neurocomputational Systems Branch at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), NIH. He also leads the Behavioral Neurophysiology Neuroscience Section. His research focuses on neural circuits underlying associative learning, decision-making, and how these processes are disrupted in neuropsychiatric disorders like addiction. He uses rats as a model system, employing techniques such as single-unit recordings, pharmacological manipulation, and genetic interventions to study brain regions including the orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, striatum, and midbrain dopamine systems.
Dr. Schoenbaum earned his M.D. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1996 and 1994, respectively), completing postdoctoral training at UNC and Johns Hopkins University under Dr. Michela Gallagher. His work integrates behavioral neuroscience with computational models to understand how neural circuits support adaptive behavior and learning.
His research interests emphasize the role of dopamine in reward prediction errors, the impact of prior drug use on neural encoding, and the neurobiological basis of cognitive inflexibility in addiction. Major contributions include studies on orbitofrontal cortex ensembles and their role in schema formation and decision-making.
Publications span topics from dopamine signaling in midbrain to the effects of cocaine on neural plasticity. His lab’s findings have implications for developing interventions targeting addiction-related cognitive deficits.
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