• psychopharmacology and psychobiology of depression, psychosis, anxiety and addiction;
• mechanism of action of antidepressant drugs;
• studies designed to identify novel, potential antidepressant drugs with better efficacy and a faster onset of action;
• excitatory amino acids, the dopaminergic system and antipsychotic drugs;
• effects of antipsychotic drugs in neurodevelopmental animal models of schizophrenia;
• the serotonin system and anxiolytic activity;
• proliferation of neurons in adult hippocampus, behavioral symptoms related to the development of drug addiction;
• the role of serotonergic and GABA-ergic systems in the behavioral effects of psychostimulants;
• the impact of environmental and pharmacological agents on brain development.

Behavioural:
- general: locomotor activity, exploratory activity, rota-rod, climbing behavior, aggressive behavior, conditioned avoidance reflex;
- animal models of depression: forced swim test, chronic mild stress, olfactory bulbectomy;
- animal models of psychosis: latent inhibition, delayed alternation task, sensorimotor gating in rodents (measured as prepulse-induced inhibition of acoustic startle response), social interactions;
- animal models of anxiety: elevated plus-maze, open field, Vogel's test, conditional fear;
- animal models for studying the brain reward system: conditioned place preference and aversion, behavioral sensitization, self-administration, drug discrimination;
- electrically and chemically induced convulsions.

Biochemical:
- the release od dopamine, glutamate, aspartate and adenosine measured by a brain microdialysis;
- tissue concentrations of neurotransmitters (noradrenaline, dopamine, serotonin) and their metabolites, glutamate and aspartate (HPLC);
- an assay of second messengers (cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP);
- in situ hybridization and Northern blot analysis of mRNA;
- radioligand receptor binding techniques;
- receptor autoradiography;
- the electrophoresis of proteins and Western blot analyses;
- molecular cloning and PCR;
- DNA microarrays.

Immunocytohistochemical:
- the immunocytochemistry of receptors, enzymes, fast early genes, and heat shock proteins;
- fluorescent and confocal microscopy;
- retrograde tracers;
- image analysis.

Others:
- stereotaxic implantation of cannula in brain structures (intracerebral injections);
- cell cultures, including transfection with neurotransmitter receptor genes.

The Department cooperates with:

the Institute of Pharmacology, the University of Bonn (Germany)

- studies on the antidepressant drug activity in transgenic mice;

Karolinska Institutet, Department of Neuroscience, Stockhom (Sweden)

- the role of receptor heterodimeric complexes in drug addiction;

Solvay Pharmaceuticals Research Laboratories, Weesp (the Netherlands)

- interaction between endocannabinoids and abused drugs;

Max-Delbruck-Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), Berlin (Germany)

- the role of serotonin and its receptors in several brain disorders including nicotine addiction;

the Department of Experimantal and Clinical Medicine, Section of Pharmacology and BioPharmaNet TransLab, University of Ferrara, Ferrara (Italy)

- neurochemical correlates underlying motivational and pharmacological aspects of cocaine intoxication.

PhD Students:

Engineers, Technicians and Other Employees: