The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has been awarded a $159,711 Project Grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (CFDA 93.279 - Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs) to conduct electrophysiological research on the impacts of acute opioid use on human brain activity related to reward, affect, and pain processing.
Through this 5-year grant, UCLA researchers will leverage direct neural recordings from implanted electrodes in epilepsy and deep brain stimulation patients to examine how opioid administration acutely affects functional connectivity within brain networks involved in addiction and chronic pain. The goal is to reveal neurophysiological signatures associated with opioid use that could inform future neuromodulatory treatments for opioid use disorder. This project will provide the principal investigator, Dr. Ryu, with mentored training from an interdisciplinary team of substance abuse, neuromodulation, and computational neuroscience experts.