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Prof. Dr. Anton M. Schoffelmeer, PhD. |
 Anton N.M. Schoffelmeer (Professor of Psychopharmacology) is head of the Psychopharmacology group and member of the managing board of the Department of Anatomy and Neurosciences. He is also coordinator of the program Addictive Behaviour of the Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research of the VU/VUmc (www.cncr.vu.nl) and member of the research counsels of the CNCR and the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Neurosciences (ICEN) of the VUmc.His research group addresses the pharmacology of cognitive and motivational processes that mediate drug- and food-seeking behaviour, taking advantage of a variety of operant paradigms in rats. Within the CNCR, these animal models are used to unravel the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying addictive behaviour in order to develop an innovative pharmacotherapy for the clinical management of addictive behaviour, in particular nicotine dependence, alcoholism and obesity. Addiction to drugs of abuse (nicotine, amphetamine, cocaine, heroin, alcohol, cannabis) continues to extract enormous human and financial costs on our western society. Thus, this brain disease places a significant burden on health, social cohesion, crime and is co-morbid with other psychiatric disorders such as ADHD and depression. The central feature of drug addiction is compulsive drug use, i.e. loss of control over apparently voluntary acts of drug-seeking and drug taking. Addictive processes can be adequately investigated at the behavioural, molecular and cellular level using various validated animal (primarily rat) models. Apart from their greater neurobiological accessibility, a key point is that animals can be studied from the drug naïve state through psychic dependence, whereas clinical studies begin with an addicted individual who is usually seeking help to maintain abstinence. From a neurobiological perspective, the leading hypothesis is that addictive behaviour is maintained by persistent alterations in neuronal communication within the motivational (mesocorticolimbic) system leading to dysfunctioning of brain reward centers that subserve the survival of organisms. The search for (common) neuroadaptations induced by self-administration of drugs of abuse and their role in relapse behaviour upon (re)exposure of laboratory animals to stimuli that are known to induce craving and relapse in humans (cues, stressors, drugs) is a particularly important issue in neuroscience. The abundant availability of calorically dense foods such as fats and sweets in western diets is largely responsible for the current obesity epidemic and neuroscience can make critical contributions to the further understanding and treatment of this problem. Traditionally, major focus has been directed to the hypothalamus. However, much less is known about how the hypothalamus functions within its associated neural networks that integrate other factors involved in appetite, such as emotional and cognitive processing in the motivational system. Just like drug addiction, obesity is due to foraging and ingestion habits that persist despite the threat of catastrophic consequences. Feeding and drug use involve learning habits and preferences that are stamped in by the reinforcing properties of powerful and repetitive rewards. Thus, food activates the brain reward circuitry through fast sensory inputs and slow post-ingestive consequences (such as central glucose concentrations), whereas drugs activate these same pathways through their pharmacological effects on the reward circuitry. Due to individual genetic differences not all humans who are exposed to high-fat, high-calorie foods become compulsive eaters, just as not all humans who are exposed to habit-forming drugs become addicted. Moreover, as early exposure to drugs of abuse during development increases the acquisition of drug addiction later in life, early exposure to calorically dense diets can enhance the acquisition of obesity during adolescence. Indeed, few research fields seem to offer as much potential for cross-fertilization as the fields of drug addiction and obesity research. Publications Some recent publications:
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