Carrie R. Ferrario

Colony maintenance and the behavioral and physiological characteristics of selectively bred obesity prone and obesity resistant rats.

This study describes the maintenance of selectively bred obesity-prone and obesity-resistant rat lines, characterizes their phenotypes, and examines striatal function and food motivation.

Quantifying social roles in multi-animal videos using subject-aware deep-learning

This paper introduces a subject-aware deep-learning system to quantify social roles in multi-animal groups across species and assays.

Effects of junk-food on food-motivated behavior and NAc glutamate plasticity; insights into the mechanism of NAc calcium-permeable AMPA receptor recruitment

This study examines how junk-food diets affect food-motivated behavior and NAc glutamate plasticity in obesity-prone and resistant rats, identifying mechanisms of CP-AMPAR recruitment.

Insulin enhances presynaptic glutamate release via opioid receptor-mediated disinhibition

This study shows insulin enhances presynaptic glutamate release in the nucleus accumbens via opioid receptor-mediated disinhibition, while IGF receptor activation decreases it, with obesity impairing insulin receptor function.

Effects of hM4Di activation in CamKII basolateral amygdala neurons and CNO treatment on Sensory-Specific vs. General-PIT; refining PIT circuits and considerations for using CNO.

This study investigates the role of BLA CamKII neurons in SS-PIT and shows that CNO disrupts both SS-PIT and General-PIT, highlighting considerations for using CNO in affective motivation studies.

Effects of the estrous cycle and ovarian hormones on cue-triggered motivation and intrinsic excitability of medium spiny neurons in the Nucleus Accumbens of female rats

This study investigates how the estrous cycle and ovarian hormones affect motivation and intrinsic excitability of medium spiny neurons in the nucleus accumbens of female rats, finding cycle- and hormone-dependent effects on food cue motivation and neuronal excitability.

Knock-in rat lines with Cre recombinase at the dopamine D1 and adenosine 2a receptor loci.

The paper generates and validates two novel Cre-expressing rat lines for studying striatal pathways.

Eating junk-food has opposite effects on intrinsic excitability of nucleus accumbens core neurons in obesity-susceptible vs. -resistant rats.

This study shows that junk-food consumption has opposite effects on medium spiny neuron excitability in obesity-susceptible and resistant rats, mediated by changes in IA and IKIR currents.