Shani Ross

I am a Biomedical Engineering Graduate Student (bio-electrical concentraion).  My thesis project is investigating the effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) on reward behavior and the neural coding of reward.  Specifically, I am targetting the ventral pallidum which is a part of the reward circuit in the Basal Ganglia and I am attempting to disrupt / "block" the ventral pallidum and this ultimately reward-seeking responses.  The idea is to explore DBS as a potential treatment for negative excessive reward, e.g. drug addiction, and to further understand how DBS works.