Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( 🔒 ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Need Help

Estrogenic regulation of neuromodulators and temporal discounting

Award Number: K99DA062326
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: TRAINING/TRAINEESHIP
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 03/15/2026
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 02/29/2028

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Estrogenic regulation of neuromodulators and temporal discounting - Project Summary To survive, animals must learn to maximize reward and minimize the cost of time. The value of a reward is discounted according to its anticipated delay, termed temporal discounting, and the rate of this depreciation for money, food, and sex varies with hormonal fluctuations over the menstrual cycle in humans. Yet, how hormones modulate molecular and neural activity underlying temporal discounting is unclear. Closing this gap is crucial for our understanding of how endogenous hormones modulate the subjective value of rewards. Studying perturbations by hormones holds promise for revealing previously unresolved neural mechanisms that support temporal discounting. The dopamine and serotonin neuromodulatory systems are compelling candidates for the site of modulation, given their known roles in temporal discounting and deliberation between rewards with varying delays. We have previously identified alterations to the expression of critical components of the dopamine and serotonin signaling pathways over the rat reproductive cycle. I will use high-throughput behavioral training on a behavioral paradigm I developed for studying temporal discounting in rats, enabling application of powerful tools to monitor and manipulate neural circuits. I will suppress hormone activity to probe its causal role in behavior, neural activity, and molecular regulation. This proposal is organized in three Aims that encompass a K99 training phase and an R00 independent phase. In the first Aim (K99), I will optogenetically tag dopaminergic neurons and record their activity as behaving rats estimate the temporally discounted value of rewards. I will develop and apply computational models to explicitly test hypotheses about how hormones modulate discounting rate and the neural populations that represent temporally discounted future rewards. In Aim 2 (K99) and Aim 3A (R00), I will determine the molecular mechanism hormones use to regulate the expression of neuromodulatory signaling proteins, starting with the hypothesis that this regulation is at the level of protein synthesis. Finally, in Aim 3B (R00), I will study the dynamics of serotonin release with fiber photometry while rats decide between reward delays. These experiments will establish how hormones affect behavioral engagement of the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems in rats performing a rich, quantifiable decision-making behavior. The Center for Neural Science at New York University is the ideal place to address the intersection between systems-level questions about neurophysiology during behavior and molecular-level questions about protein synthesis regulation with a computational model that relates them to hormones. The strong, collaborative mentorship that I will receive from Drs. Christine Constantinople and Eric Klann will allow me to merge my exceptional experimental skillset with statistical modeling approaches, enabling the interdisciplinary approach necessary for this proposal that will become the foundation of my research program in my independent laboratory. It will have profound basic science implications for understanding hormones in the brain.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $169,489 )
2026	2026	NEW YORK UNIVERSITY	70 WASHINGTON SQ S FL 11	NEW YORK	NY	10012	NEW YORK	USA	Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs	000	1	3/19/2026	NEW	$169,489
														Subtotal = $169,489

Grand Total All Awards = $169,489

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Estrogenic regulation of neuromodulators and temporal discounting

Award Number: K99DA062326

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: TRAINING/TRAINEESHIP

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 03/15/2026

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 02/29/2028

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer