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Teresa R. Franklin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience in Psychiatry
Treatment Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, U Penn School of Medicine
Phone: (215) 222-3200 x119
Fax (215) 386-6770
email:
franklin_t@mail.trc.upenn.edu
Website: http://www.med.upenn.edu/apps/faculty/index.php/g332/p19076
Click here for selected publications since Dr. Franklin's arrival at Penn
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Neuroimaging of drug craving provoked by stimuli associated with drug addiction
and the influence of sex and menstrual cycle phase on the brain substrates
involved in drug-dependent behaviors. RESEARCH TECHNIQUES
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)Voxel based morphometry (VBM)
Statistic parametric mapping (SPM)
Independent Components Analysis (ICA)
Positron emission tomography (PET)
RESEARCH SUMMARY
The major focus of our laboratory is studying the contribution of drug-related cues, which trigger states of craving, to drug dependence. Neuroimaging techniques such as PET (positron emission tomography) and fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) are used to characterize cue-triggered responses to opiate, cocaine, and nicotine stimuli. Further, we are examining the relationships among subjective, physiological and neurophysiological responses to drug cues, cue reactivity in men vs. women, the influence of menstrual cycle on female responses, and the ability of craving to predict relapse. Neuropsychological and cognitive bias tests are employed to learn more about vulnerability to relapse. Cue-reactivity paradigms are used as a laboratory screen to search for medications that might blunt cue-induced craving. Currently we are testing the effects of the GABAergic, baclofen on the subjective and CNS responses to triggers for cocaine and nicotine. We have begun to examine functional connectivity and possible disconnectivity in drug addiction using principal and independent components analysis (PCA and ICA). We have made significant initial steps in understanding the neuroanatomical and neurochemical substrates of cue-induced craving and we will continue in our quest to better understand its contribution to maintenance of drug-taking and relapse.
KEY WORDS:
cigarettes, tobacco, nicotine, smoking, cue-reactivity, cue-induced craving, fMRI, vulnerability to relapse, sex differences, menstrual cycle, addiction, neuroanatomy
