Zuoxin Wang

Dr. Wang is accepting a graduate student in collaboration with Dr. Kabbaj. • Selective social attachments, such as adult male-female bonds or parent-infant attachment, are among the most powerful driving forces of human behavior and play an important role for human mental health and development. Our research has been focused on understanding the neurochemical and hormonal mechanisms underlying adult pair bonding behavior using a socially monogamous rodent species, the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogater), as a model system. We have been focusing on several neurochemical systems such as oxytocin, vasopressin, and dopamine and examining their roles and interactions in the regulation of pair bonding behavior. We have also been investigating how these neurochemical systems mediate biobehavioral responses to pair bonding disrupted by factors such as drugs of abuse or stressful experience.