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Dr. Morrow's primary research interest is in delineating the basic neurobiology that underlies motivated behavior, and determining how variation in that neurobiology can lead to psychopathology. Dr. Morrow employs a behavioral procedure in animals known as the Pavlovian conditioned approach (PCA) in combination with fear conditioning techniques to identify vulnerability factors that may be common to both addiction and PTSD, an increasingly prevalent comorbidity that is often recalcitrant to current treatments. The Morrow lab uses behavioral, pharmacological, immunohistochemical, and neurosurgical techniques in rodents to identify and manipulate specific neural circuits that show individual differences relevant to multiple psychiatric disorders. Findings suggest that individual differences in functional connectivity within the limbic system, particularly involving the mesoaccumbens system, may affect vulnerability to a large number of psychiatric disorders, including both addiction and PTSD. In addition to ongoing rodent experiments, Dr. Morrow is working to adapt the PCA model for screening human subjects so that potential treatments and preventative strategies identified through these techniques can be tested in both humans and animals.