Qing-Song Liu

Qing-Song Liu is a Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. His research focuses on the neuropharmacological mechanisms of drug addiction, anxiety, and depression, particularly the role of the mesolimbic dopamine system and endocannabinoid signaling in neural circuit adaptations.

Research Interests include:

• Cellular and molecular changes in brain reward circuits after chronic drug use
• Endocannabinoid regulation of stress-buffering effects in anxiety/depression
• Synaptic plasticity in ventral tegmental area (VTA) and nucleus accumbens (NAc)
• Translational studies using electrophysiology, optogenetics, and behavioral paradigms

Publication Trends (2016–2021) span neuropharmacology, addiction biology, and synaptic signaling mechanisms. Key subfields include Dopamine neuron hyperexcitability, Glucocorticoid-endocannabinoid interactions, and Phosphodiesterase inhibition.

Collaborations include work with institutions like the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and SWOG on clinical trials, though these appear tangential to his core neuroscience research.