Matthew Hearing, Ph.D. 糖心vlog蜜桃Schroeder Complex, 429F
MilwaukeeWI53201United States of America(414) 288-5291matthew.hearing@marquette.eduDr. Matthew Hearing is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at 糖心vlog蜜桃. He earned his B.S. from 糖心vlog蜜桃 in 2003 and his Ph.D. from the Medical University of South Carolina in 2010, where he conducted research in the laboratories of Drs. Jacqueline McGinty and David Baker. He subsequently completed postdoctoral training at the University of Minnesota in the laboratories of Drs. Mark Thomas and Kevin Wickman.
Dr. Hearing鈥檚 research focuses on understanding how changes in cellular function and synaptic plasticity shape behavior in both healthy and disease states. A major emphasis of his laboratory is determining how chronic exposure to drugs of abuse and psychosocial stress alters neural circuits in ways that contribute to substance use disorders, relapse, and stress-related cognitive dysfunction.931
His laboratory also investigates biological factors that influence vulnerability and resilience to these adaptations, with a particular emphasis on biological sex. By identifying the cellular and circuit mechanisms that drive maladaptive behavior, this work seeks to uncover strategies for restoring normal neural function and reversing behavioral pathology.
Perturbations in neural circuits that regulate decision-making, inhibitory control, motivation, reward, and habit are central to the development of substance use and stress-related disorders. The goal of our research is to understand how chronic drug exposure and psychosocial stress alter these circuits, identify the neurobiological adaptations that contribute to vulnerability or resilience, and determine how maladaptive circuit function can be restored.
Our primary research focuses on experience-dependent plasticity within the prefrontal cortex and striatum and how changes within these interconnected circuits contribute to cognitive dysfunction, altered motivated behavior, relapse, and the development of compulsive drug-seeking. We are particularly interested in understanding how these adaptations develop over time and how factors such as biological sex influence their emergence and behavioral consequences.
To address these questions, our laboratory uses a multi-level approach that allows us to examine neural adaptations from the synapse to behavior. We combine complex behavioral models with ex vivo electrophysiology, pharmacology, optogenetic circuit manipulation, and in vivo calcium imaging of neuronal activity during behavior. By integrating these approaches, we can identify changes in synaptic and cellular function, determine how they alter the activity of specific neural circuits in behaving animals, and directly test how these adaptations contribute to behavioral pathology.
