Sondra Bland, Ph.D.

BA, Education, 1991;  University of North Carolina, Charlotte.
PhD, Biological Psychology, 2000; University of Texas, Austin.

My research focuses on the impact of social experience during adolescence on social and aggressive behaviors and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) function in rat models, as well as interactions of social experience on the effects of drugs of abuse.   Work in my laboratory uses immunohistochemistry, behavioral assays, and in vivo microdialysis coupled with electrochemical HPLC to assess the impact of adolescent social experience on neural activation, plasticity, and monoamine release during both drug and social challenges in rats. I am also the director of the NIH-funded BRAiN program, which aims to increase diversity in Neuroscience PhD programs.

Dawud LM, Loetz EC, Lloyd B, Beam R, Tran S, Cowie K, Browne K, Khan T, Montoya R, Greenwood BN, Bland ST. A novel social fear conditioning procedure alters social behavior and mTOR signaling in differentially housed adolescent rats. Dev Psychobiol. 2021 Jan;63(1):74-87. doi: 10.1002/dev.22001. Epub 2020 Jun 10. PubMed PMID: 32524583; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7726006.

Johnson RJ, Wilson WL, Bland ST, Lanaspa MA. Fructose and Uric Acid as Drivers of a Hyperactive Foraging Response: A Clue to Behavioral Disorders Associated with Impulsivity or Mania?. Evol Hum Behav. 2021 May;42(3):194-203. doi: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2020.09.006. Epub 2020 Oct 1. PubMed PMID: 33994772; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8117086.

Goodell D.J., Ahern M.A., Baynard J., Wall V.L., Bland S.T. (2016).  A novel escapable social interaction test reveals that social behavior and mPFC activation during an escapable social encounter are altered by post-weaning social isolation and are dependent on the aggressiveness of the stimulus rat. Behav Brain Res, 317:1-15. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2016.09.025.

Fontenot J, Loetz EC, Ishiki M, Bland ST. Monoacylglycerol lipase inhibition alters social behavior in male and female rats after post-weaning social isolation. Behav Brain Res. 2018 Apr 2;341:146-153. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.12.038. Epub 2017 Dec 29. PubMed PMID: 29292159; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6034682.

Ahern A., Goodell D.J., Adams J., & Bland S.T.  (2016)  Brain regional differences in social encounter-induced Fos expression in male and female rats after post-weaning social isolation. Brain Research, 1630:120-33. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.11.006. 

Grotewold S.K., Wall V.L., Goodell D.J., Hayter C., Bland S.T. (2014) Effects of cocaine combined with a social cue on conditioned place preference and nucleus accumbens monoamines after isolation rearing in rats. Psychopharmacology 231(15):3041-53.

PSYC 4054 - Behavioral Neuroscience
PSYC 3265 - Drugs, Brain and Behavior
PSYC 7220 - Advanced Behavioral Neuroscience
PSYC 3832 - Neural Basis of Learning
PSYC 3724 - Developmental Psychobiology