Research Topics
My laboratory uses brain imaging (PET and MRI) to study the neurocircuitry that underlies the rewarding effects of drugs of abuse and of natural reinforcers and their disruption in diseases of addiction and obesity. For this purposes it studies how reward circuits modulate executive function (self-control), interoception, and motivation in the normal human brain including an understanding of the role of brain dopamine signaling, functional brain network interactions and genetics (Dr Elena Shumai). It evaluates the disruption of these interactions in addiction, morbid obesity (Dr Gene-Jack Wang) and ADHD, which are disorders characterized by deficits in self-control and reward sensitivity. It also focuses on methodological studies to advance the tools to study function of the human brain including development of PET radiotracers (Dr Sunny Kim), which is focused on the development of ligands to map epigenetic processes, development of analytical tools (Dr Dardo Tomasi) to help analyze and understand the underlying physiology behind the dynamically complex patterns of brain networks and on the sensitivity of the human brain to electro magnetic perturbations (magnetic fields from MRI and cell phone radiation).
Biography
M.D.: National University of Mexico UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico - 1975-1980.
Postdoctoral: New York University, New York, NY - 1980-1984. (Residency in Psychiatry).
Selected Publications
- Manza P, Tomasi D, Shokri-Kojori E, Zhang R, Kroll D, Feldman D, McPherson K, Biesecker C, Dennis E, Johnson A, Yuan K, Wang WT, Yonga MV, Wang GJ, Volkow ND. Neural circuit selective for fast but not slow dopamine increases in drug reward. Nat Commun. 2023;14(1):6408.
- Tomasi D, Manza P, Yan W, Shokri-Kojori E, Demiral ŞB, Yonga MV, McPherson K, Biesecker C, Dennis E, Johnson A, Zhang R, Wang GJ, Volkow ND. Examining the role of dopamine in methylphenidate's effects on resting brain function. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023;120(52):e2314596120.
- Zhang R, Manza P, Tomasi D, Kim SW, Shokri-Kojori E, Demiral SB, Kroll DS, Feldman DE, McPherson KL, Biesecker CL, Wang GJ, Volkow ND. Dopamine D1 and D2 receptors are distinctly associated with rest-activity rhythms and drug reward. J Clin Invest. 2021;131(18).
- Shokri-Kojori E, Wang GJ, Wiers CE, Demiral SB, Guo M, Kim SW, Lindgren E, Ramirez V, Zehra A, Freeman C, Miller G, Manza P, Srivastava T, De Santi S, Tomasi D, Benveniste H, Volkow ND. β-Amyloid accumulation in the human brain after one night of sleep deprivation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018;115(17):4483-4488.
- Volkow ND, Wang GJ, Kollins SH, Wigal TL, Newcorn JH, Telang F, Fowler JS, Zhu W, Logan J, Ma Y, Pradhan K, Wong C, Swanson JM. Evaluating dopamine reward pathway in ADHD: clinical implications. JAMA. 2009;302(10):1084-91.
Related Scientific Focus Areas
This page was last updated on Wednesday, August 27, 2025