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NIAAA Staff Profile

 

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

NIH-Karolinska Individual Partnership Graduate Student

Giacomo Sitzia, M.A.

My main interest is how the BG circuits are organized to process diverse functions as cognitive, sensorimotor and affective behaviors. I integrate synaptic, anatomic-circuit, pharmacological and behavioral approaches to study discrete BG circuits. My studies focus on (1) the afferent connectivity of cell subpopulations of the SNr; (2) the modulation of neurotransmitter release from striatal terminals in the SNr and GPe; (3) how synaptic inputs to the SNr are affected in brain diseases as alcohol addiction and Parkinson's disease. People at LIN have a broad range of expertises and this is allowing me to learn cutting-edge technologies such as fiber photometry, miniscopes and biosensors.

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