Welcome to the Chandler Lab

Humans are exposed to stress daily throughout their lives.  During a stressful experience, the brainstem nucleus locus coeruleus becomes engaged and releases norepinephrine throughout the central nervous system to modulate arousal state and behavior.  In response to chronic or traumatic stress, however, the brain undergoes neuroadaptations that promote maladaptive behaviors and pathological anxiety which manifest as a number of neuropsychiatric and mood disorders.  Using rats as a model species, the Chandler Lab aims to identify cellular and circuit level changes that occur within the locus coeruleus in response to stressor exposure that contribute to the generation of chronic anxiety-like behaviors which persist long after a stressful experience has terminated.