Heiko Jansen
Department of VCAPP (Pullman) - Departmental Page
heiko@vetmed.wsu.edu - Jansen, Heiko
Circadian/Sleep/Addiction
Neural Plasticity and Memory
Obesity/Addiction
Our laboratory is interested in understanding how one of the earth’s basic
physical features, the day/night cycle, impacts motivated behaviors such as drug
seeking. Studies in many species, including humans, have provided clear
evidence that the body’s circadian clock is important for organizing behavior
patterns to coincide with specific portions of the daily light/dark cycle. Indeed,
destruction of the body’s clock or alterations in the fraction of light to dark to
which rats are exposed both cause alterations in drug-seeking behaviors.
Furthermore, an individual’s chronotype (i.e., the genetically determined
propensity to be more alert in the morning vs. evening) is implicated in one’s
propensity to become addicted to drugs. Thus, revealing the mechanisms
involved in the integration of light/dark with daily behavior patterns could result in
novel approaches for the treatment of addiction in a society where efforts to
ignore these environmental cues and genetic predispositions together with
increased shift work are becoming more common.
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