Research in the Gilman lab is focused on bridging gaps in knowledge about how consuming unhealthy diets, or experiencing other forms of environmental stress, feed forward to promote maladaptive behavioral changes. Such behavioral shifts include persistent consumption of unhealthy diet, inappropriate responses to stressors, or both, frequently culminating in psychiatric diseases (e.g., depression, anxiety) that are comorbid with metabolic or cardiovascular diseases. Specifically, we are investigating how diet- and stress-related neuroactive hormones (e.g., insulin, corticosterone) modulate dopaminergic signaling to initiate and perpetuate this feed-forward pathophysiology that can dramatically impact behavior.
