María Bonilla Gutiérez
Undergraduate Student
Dept. of Bíology
Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Puerto Rico
Río Piedras Campus
Home Research
Mentor: Christian Bravo, PhD
Project(s):
1) Pre-trial internal states influence behavioral outcomes in reward approach/punishment avoidance in male rats
2) Lateral habenula circuits in approach/avoidance conflict
Description of Project(s):
Project 1:
• Identify pre-trial behavioral factors that influence the way an animal behaves when
presented with conflict.
• Identify pre-trial prelimbic cortex neuronal activity that may influence the way an animal
behaves when presented with conflict.
• Characterize how prelimbic cortex neurons encode conflict vs. non-conflict conditions.
Project 2:
• Study the necessity and sufficiency of the lateral habenula during conflict conditions.
• Study the connectivity of the lateral habenula-ventral pallidum-nucleus accumbens circuit
under conflict conditions.
• Study sex differences in mice under conflict conditions.
Summer Research
Mentor: Pending
Project: Pending
Description of Project: Pending