The Moghaddam Lab is focused on the neurobiological and behavioral effects of psychotropic drugs. The work is part of a broader effort to understand how these drugs produce their rapid and lasting effects on mood, cognition, and behavior, with the goal of developing safer and more precise treatments for psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, and addiction.
Psilocybin
The lab investigates how psilocybin affects specific brain regions, particularly the prefrontal cortex and related circuits involved in mood regulation, cognitive flexibility, learning, and decision-making. Our recent studies suggest that psilocybin enhances behavioral flexibility, a trait often impaired in depression and anxiety disorders. We are curious to learn how psilocybin’s actions differ from traditional antidepressants like SSRIs, with attention to the acute and long-term neural and behavioral effects.
Presentations
Upcoming talk: SATELLITE MEETING (SfN 2025): The Trip Between Bedside and Bench: Advancing Cross-Species Research in Psychedelic Neurosciences see preview.
ESI SYNC 2025: Effect of Psilocybin on Kamin Blocking
American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Annual Meeting 2024: Behavioral and Neural Correlates of Psilocybin’s Effect on Fear and Punishment Learning
Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Annual Meeting 2024: Psilocybin effects on cognitive flexibility
Publications
Torrado-Pacheco A., Olson R.J., Garza G., Moghaddam B. (2023) Acute psilocybin enhances cognitive flexibility in rats. Neuropsychopharmacology. (view full text).
Jacobs D.S., Bogachuk A.P., Le Moing C.L., Moghaddam B. (2024) Effects of psilocybin on uncertain punishment learning. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. (view full text).
Wood J., Yunbok K., Moghaddam B., Disruption of prefrontal cortex large scale neuronal activity by different classes of psychotomimetic drugs. Journal of Neuroscience (view full text)
Ketamine
Publications
Ketamine, approved in 2019 by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of depression, has been touted by scientists and media reports as something approaching a miracle cure. This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series chronicles the ascent of a drug that has been around for fifty years—in previous incarnations, a Vietnam-era combat anesthetic and a popular club drug—that has now been reinvented as a treatment for depression.
Ketamine by Bita Moghaddam
Moghaddam, B., Adams, B., Verma, A., Daly D. (1997) Activation of glutamatergic neurotransmission by ketamine: A novel step in the pathway from NMDA receptor blockade to dopaminergic and cognitive disruptions associated with the prefrontal cortex. Journal of Neuroscience (view full text)
Verma, A., Moghaddam, B. (1996) The role of excitatory amino acids in prefrontal cortex function as assessed by spatial delayed alternation performance in rats: Modulation by dopamine. Journal of Neuroscience (view full text)