Julia A. Chester, Ph.D.
Oregon Health Services University, 1998
Research interests are focused on the genetic, neurobiological, and environmental factors that contribute to alcohol drinking behavior and the development of alcoholism. Current emphasis is on investigating how stress and stress hormones, as well as how individual differences in sensitivity to the positive and negative motivational effects of alcohol, may influence alcohol drinking behavior.

Edward A. Fox, Ph.D.
Purdue University, 1989
Why do we choose one behavior over another at any given moment? His interests are first to identify and characterize the neural systems involved in determining one's motivational state, and secondly to understand how this information interfaces with neural systems that control behavior. For instance, he and others found that many eating disorders are driven by changes in the brain's control of metabolism that then change our appetite and cause us to eat too much or too little. He uses genetic engineering (mutant, transgenic and knockout mice) in combination with modern neuroscience techniques to understand how different neural and hormonal systems interact to control metabolism and appetite. Insights gained from these studies will provide a basis for understanding how neural systems are influenced by one's motivational state and provide new avenues for therapeutic intervention in disorders of eating and body weight.

Terry L. Powley, Ph.D.
Wisconsin, 1970
Research includes analysis of the neuroanatomical, endocrinological, and physiological bases of motivated behaviors. Primary emphasis is on the identification and mapping of the neural pathways involved in feeding and weight regulation. Hypothalamic, autonomic, visceral, and hormonal controls of energy homeostasis are all investigated. More generally, both experimental and theoretical questions pertaining to the issue of localization of function are examined.

Susan E. Swithers, Ph.D.
Duke University, 1991
Research is on the ontogeny of motivated behaviors, in particular the development of behavioral, neural and physiological controls of feeding and drinking. Recent work has also examined the consequences of dissociating sensory properties of foods and calories on body weight gain and obesity.

Gerald S. Wasserman, Ph.D.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1965
Research in the Sensory Coding Laboratory examines the relation of sensation and perception with the electrical activity of single nerve cells. Some recent microelectrode and psychophysical experiments have studied color vision, backward visual masking, visual persistence, light adaptation, and brightness coding. Other recent experiments