In the past decade, there has been renewed interest in the feasibility and efficacy of purely behavioral treatments for clinical depression. Emphasizing the functional aspects of depressive and nondepressive behavior, these treatments focus on the concept of behavioral activation, which guides implementation of procedures aimed at increasing patient activity and access to reinforcement. Althoug...

The cholinergic system plays a crucial role in nervous function with important effects on developmental processes, cognition, attention, motivation, reward, learning, and memory. Nicotine, the reinforcing component of tobacco e-cigarettes, directly acts by targeting nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) brain. Activation nAChRs leads to multitude immediate long-lasting specific cellular po...

early life events influence life-long patterns of emotionality and stress responsiveness and alter the rate of brain and body aging.  much research attention has focused on the programming effects of the hypothalamus pituitary axis (hpa) in early life and on understanding hpa function in response to stressors in adulthood. in comparison, there has been relatively little research on adolescence,...

Neuropathic pain is a complex syndrome resulting from damage to the peripheral nervous system. Central neuroimmune activation contributes to the generation and maintenance of chronic pain after nerve injury. The current study determined the effects of recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) on behavioral hyperalgesia and neuroimmune activation in a rat model of neuropathic pain induced by L5 s...