Bita Moghaddam, Ph.D. (she/her)

  • Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, School of Medicine
  • Behavioral Neuroscience Graduate Program, School of Medicine

Biography

Profile

Bita Moghaddam is Ruth Matarazzo Professor in Behavioral Neuroscience at OHSU and author of KETAMINE. She received a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Kansas and postdoctoral training in pharmacology at Yale University. She joined the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University in 1990 where she quickly rose to the rank of full professor. In 2003 she moved to the University of Pittsburgh as professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry. She joined OHSU in 2017. Her research, which has been supported continuesly  by  focuses on understanding the neuronal basis of complex behaviors that are critical to mental health, and is distinguished by the substantial impact on the field (H-index 81, overall citations ~ 25,000).

Research Overview

Brain illnesses that affect cognition and emotion are the most prevalent and the most devastating of human disorders. Whether it is a chronic disease such as schizophrenia or transient bouts of anxiety and panic attacks, they influence every aspect of an individual’s life and produce enduring personal anguish and hardship to family. New treatments for these conditions are contingent upon research breakthroughs that explain the neuronal processes that support cognition and emotion. By increasing our basic understanding of how these processes work, we can identify genetic or environmental causes that disrupt them. It is then that we can find cures or prevention strategies for these disorders.

We use a systems neuroscience approach to study "dynamic" brain mechanisms that maintain cognitive and emotional functions in key brain regions that are implicated in illnesses such as schizophrenia, ADHD, anxiety, and addictive disorders. Our primary focus is on prefrontal cortex subregions and dopamine neurons in the midbrain. New directions include characterization of these neuronal systems during adolescence. The onset of symptoms for most psychiatric disorders is during adolescence; therefore, understanding what goes awry in this developmental period is critical for defining the neuronal basis of the disease process and designing strategies that prevent the onset of symptoms.

 Examples of Recent Papers 

Jacobs DS, Moghaddam B. (2020) Prefrontal cortex representation of learning of punishment probability during reward-motivated actions Journal of Neuroscience 40:5063

McCane  AM, Wegener MA, Faraji M, Rivera Garcia M, Wallin-Miller K, Costa VD, Moghaddam B (2021) Adolescent dopamine neurons represent reward differently during action and state guided learning, Journal of Neuroscience, 41:9419

Moghaddam B, Abbas A, (2022) Depression and Prefrontal Cortex: All roads lead to dopamine, Biological Psychiatry, 91: 773

Jacobs DS, Allen MC, Park, J, Moghaddam B, (2022) Learning of probabilistic punishment as a model of anxiety produces changes in action but not punisher encoding in the dmPFC and VTA, eLIFE, DOI 10.7554

Torrado Pacheco A, Olson R, Gaza G, Moghaddam B (2023) Acute psilocybin enhances cognitive flexibility in rats. Neuropsychopharmacology, 48:1011

(complete list https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=WNB2KvkAAAAJ&view_op=li…?

Selected  Recent Media Coverage

KCRW, 23 Apr 2022, “Psychedelic spirituality: Ketamine and the future of mental health.” listen here

The Nation, 23 Mar 2022, “Breaking Off My Chemical Romance.” view article

This is Critical, 22 Jan 2021, “Is Ketamine all it’s cracked up to be?” listen here

SFN Neuronline, Jan 2021, “How One Scientist Stays Focused in the Face of Prejudice.” view article

The MIT Press Podcast, 21 Sept 2020, “Pharmacological Histories Ep. 3 Bita Moghaddam on Ketamine.” listen here

CNN Health, 4 June 2020, “How to make good decisions when you’re paralyzed by the stress of protests and the pandemic.” view article 

Science Daily, 2 April 2019, “Dopamine conducts prefrontal cortex ensembles: Study reports novel ways that dopamine cells influence the function of prefrontal cortex of the brain.” view article

Areas of interest

  • systems neuroscience approaches to understanding cognitive-affective interface
  • novel behavioral and computational models of mood and cognitive disorders
  • prefrontal cortex and action selection

Publications

Publications

  • Adolescents rats engage the orbitofrontal-striatal pathway differently than adults during impulsive actions

    Scientific Reports
    1. Aqilah M. McCane
    2. Lo Kronheim
    3. Alejandro Torrado Pacheco
    4. Bita Moghaddam

  • Effects of psilocybin on uncertain punishment learning

    Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
    1. David S. Jacobs
    2. Alina P. Bogachuk
    3. Chloé L. Le Moing
    4. Bita Moghaddam

  • Impact of Supplementation With Omega-3 Fatty Acids After Maternal Dietary Deficiency on Adolescent Anxiety and Microglial Morphology

    Behavioral Neuroscience
    1. Alina P. Bogachuk
    2. David S. Jacobs
    3. Bita Moghaddam

  • Orbitofrontal and Prelimbic Cortices Serve Complementary Roles in Adapting Reward Seeking to Learned Anxiety

    Biological Psychiatry
    1. David S. Jacobs
    2. Alina P. Bogachuk
    3. Bita Moghaddam

  • Acute psilocybin enhances cognitive flexibility in rats

    Neuropsychopharmacology
    1. Alejandro Torrado Pacheco
    2. Randall J. Olson
    3. Gabriela Garza
    4. Bita Moghaddam

  • Learning of probabilistic punishment as a model of anxiety produces changes in action but not punisher encoding in the dmPFC and VTA

    eLife
    1. David S. Jacobs
    2. Madeleine C. Allen
    3. Junchol Park
    4. Bita Moghaddam

  • Adolescent dopamine neurons represent reward differently during action and state guided learning

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Aqilah M. McCane
    2. Meredyth A. Wegener
    3. Mojdeh Faraji
    4. Maria T. Rivera-Garcia
    5. Kathryn G. Wallin-Miller
    6. Vincent D. Costa
    7. Bita Moghaddam

  • Increased Goal Tracking in Adolescent Rats Is Goal-Directed and Not Habit-Like

    Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
    1. Analise N. Rode
    2. Bita Moghaddam
    3. Sara E. Morrison

  • Prefrontal Cortex Representation of Learning of Punishment Probability during Reward-Motivated Actions

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. David S. Jacobs
    2. Bita Moghaddam

  • Sex and strain differences in dynamic and static properties of the mesolimbic dopamine system

    Neuropsychopharmacology
    1. Maria Teresa Rivera-Garcia
    2. Aqilah M. McCane
    3. Tara G. Chowdhury
    4. Kathryn G. Wallin-Miller
    5. Bita Moghaddam

  • Unanticipated stressful and rewarding experiences engage the same prefrontal cortex and ventral tegmental area neuronal populations

    eNeuro
    1. Alberto Del Arco
    2. Junchol Park
    3. Bita Moghaddam

  • Dopamine Modulation of Prefrontal Cortex Activity Is Manifold and Operates at Multiple Temporal and Spatial Scales

    Cell Reports
    1. Sweyta Lohani
    2. Adria K. Martig
    3. Karl Deisseroth
    4. Ilana B. Witten
    5. Bita Moghaddam

  • Sex differences in reward- and punishment-guided actions

    Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience
    1. Tara G. Chowdhury
    2. Kathryn G. Wallin-Miller
    3. Alice A. Rear
    4. Junchol Park
    5. Vanessa Diaz
    6. Nicholas W. Simon
    7. Bita Moghaddam

  • The critical importance of basic animal research for neuropsychiatric disorders

    Neuropsychopharmacology
    1. Tracy L. Bale
    2. Ted Abel
    3. Huda Akil
    4. William A. Carlezon
    5. Bita Moghaddam
    6. Eric J. Nestler
    7. Kerry J. Ressler
    8. Scott M. Thompson

  • Burst activation of dopamine neurons produces prolonged post-burst availability of actively released dopamine

    Neuropsychopharmacology
    1. Sweyta Lohani
    2. Adria K. Martig
    3. Suzanne M. Underhill
    4. Alicia DeFrancesco
    5. Melanie J. Roberts
    6. Linda Rinaman
    7. Susan Amara
    8. Bita Moghaddam

  • Adaptive encoding of outcome prediction by prefrontal cortex ensembles supports behavioral flexibility

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Alberto Del Arco
    2. Junchol Park
    3. Jesse Wood
    4. Yunbok Kim
    5. Bita Moghaddam

  • Networks of VTA neurons encode real-time information about uncertain numbers of actions executed to earn a reward

    Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
    1. Jesse Wood
    2. Nicholas W. Simon
    3. F. Spencer Koerner
    4. Robert E. Kass
    5. Bita Moghaddam

  • Repeated Nicotine Strengthens Gamma Oscillations in the Prefrontal Cortex and Improves Visual Attention

    Neuropsychopharmacology
    1. Lezio S. Bueno-Junior
    2. Nicholas W. Simon
    3. Meredyth A. Wegener
    4. Bita Moghaddam

  • Risk of punishment influences discrete and coordinated encoding of reward-guided actions by prefrontal cortex and VTA neurons

    eLife
    1. Junchol Park
    2. Bita Moghaddam

  • Unexpected global impact of VTA dopamine neuron activation as measured by opto-fMRI

    Molecular Psychiatry
    1. S. Lohani
    2. A. J. Poplawsky
    3. S. G. Kim
    4. B. Moghaddam

  • Anxiety evokes hypofrontality and disrupts rule-relevant encoding by dorsomedial prefrontal cortex neurons

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Junchol Park
    2. Jesse Wood
    3. Corina Bondi
    4. Alberto Del Arco
    5. Bita Moghaddam

  • Reward Anticipation Is Encoded Differently by Adolescent Ventral Tegmental Area Neurons

    Biological Psychiatry
    1. Yunbok Kim
    2. Nicholas W. Simon
    3. Jesse Wood
    4. Bita Moghaddam