faculty
Rita Fuchs Lokensgard
Professor & ADA Director
Accepting Graduate Students
rita.fuchs@wsu.edu
Office
Room: Veterinary and Biomedical Research Building (VBR) room 231
Phone: (509) 335-6164
Current Positions
2013 Professor, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
2013 ADARP Director, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Research
Environmental stimuli orchestrate adaptive behaviors, cognition, and physiological functions in healthy individuals. Similarly, drug-associated environmental stimuli trigger intense drug-related memories and precipitate drug craving, impulsive decision making, and even immunosuppression in substance abusers. NIH-funded research in my laboratory has focused on demonstrating empirically the existence of some of these drug context-induced phenomena through the development and implementation of novel animal models. We now aim to elucidate the neural underpinnings of these phenomena and to inform the development of treatment strategies that promote recovery from drug dependence and preempt the long-term health consequences of drug addiction.
To learn more about Dr. Fuchs Lokensgard's research, visit her website: Fuchs Lokensgard Lab
Honors and Awards
1995-Present Member of the Society for Neuroscience
2001 College on Problems of Drug Dependence Conference Young Investigator Travel Award
2005 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Young Investigator Memorial Travel Award
2006, 2007 Mason and Linda Stephenson Faculty Award, UNC
2006 Elected Member, College on Problems of Drug Dependence
2006-2013 Elected Associate Member, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
2007-Elected member, International Behavioral Neuroscience Society
2011, 2012 Faculty of 1000 Recommendation of Publication Based on Significance
2012 Stephenson and Lindquist Faculty Excellence Award, UNC Department of Psychology
2012-2014 Nominated for the Society for Neuroscience Jacob P. Waletzky Prize
2014-present Elected member, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
2013-2019 Member, NIH NMB Study Section
Current Funding
NIH/NIDA, Drug context-induced instrumental cocaine seeking: Influence of memory reconsolidation, PI
NIH/NIDA, Role of IL-1 in heroin's immune and motivational effects, PI
- Lebonville CL, Paniccia JE, Parekh SV, Wangler LM, Jones ME, Fuchs RA, Lysle DT. (2020) Expression of a heroin contextually conditioned immune effect in male rats requires CaMKIIα-expressing neurons in dorsal, but not ventral, subiculum and hippocampal CA1. Brain Behav Immun. 89:414-422 PMID: 32717403 PMCID: PMC7572614 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2020.07.028
- McLaughlin RJ, Fuchs RA. (2020) And the best stressed is…? A mechanistic analysis of sex differences in stress-potentiated cocaine-seeking behavior. Neuropsychopharmacology 45(12):1961-1962 PMID: 32433525 PMCID: PMC7547005 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-020-0710-3
- Higginbotham JA, Wang R, Richardson BD, Shiina H, Tan SM, Presker MA, Rossi DJ, Fuchs RA. (2020) CB1 receptor signaling modulates amygdalar plasticity during context-cocaine memory reconsolidation to promote subsequent cocaine seeking. Pre-Print PMID: PMCID: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.02.130419v1
- Higginbotham JA, Jones NM, Wang R, McLaughlin RJ, Fuchs RA. (2020) Basolateral amygdala CB1 receptors modulate HPA axis activation and context-cocaine memory strength during reconsolidation. Pre-Print PMID: PMCID: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.18.209932v1