معرفی
Talia N Lerner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. She also holds an appointment in the Department of Physiology. Her research focuses on dopamine circuits, neural mechanisms of motivation, reinforcement learning, and decision-making, with translational applications in depression, addiction, and Parkinson's Disease.
Her lab investigates how individual differences in neural circuits affect susceptibility to neuropsychiatric disorders and aims to tailor clinical treatments to individual brain architectures. She received the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award in 2019 to study the impact of childhood adversity on psychiatric disorder susceptibility using mice models.
Research Highlights:
- Sex-specific mechanisms linking stress hormones to dopamine transmission and major depressive disorder.
- Role of dopamine in striatal subregions for habit formation and compulsive behaviors.
- Integration of basic science (dopamine system function, basal ganglia circuits) with translational applications.
Awards:
- NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2019).
Labs & Collaborations: The Lerner Lab collaborates with institutions such as the Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment, Center for Translational Pain Research, and Simpson Querrey Institute for Epigenetics. Her team includes graduate students, postdocs, and technicians exploring neural circuit dynamics.
