Matthew Birnie

Research in the Birnie Laboratory investigates how environmental stress, particularly during early-life development, reprograms neural architecture to drive long-term cognitive and affective (mood/emotional) disorders. Key Focus Areas include:

1.    Neuropeptide signaling & circuitry: Delineate how neuromodulators (e.g., corticotropin-releasing hormone, oxytocin, and dopamine) and their neural projections disrupt reward processing, motivation, and mood - contributing to conditions like anhedonia and depression.

2.    Synaptic plasticity & memory: Identify the cellular and structural mechanisms that cause cognitive and affective disorders following acute adult and early-life stress.

3.    Brain-body interactions: Examine how endogenous and exogenous biological rhythms modulate vulnerability to cognitive and affective disorders.

To achieve this, our laboratory integrates transgenic mouse models with state-of-the-art optogenetic, chemogenetic, optical imaging, and behavioral approaches.