Brandon Oberlin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology (IUSM), and Psychology (School of Science)
Assistant Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology (IUSM), and Psychology (School of Science)
My research interests span the range of addiction development: risk factors; maintenance and progression; and, recovery and relapse prevention. Currently, the focus in my lab is on unhealthy decision-making, behavioral traits linked to addiction/alcoholism disorders and related brain activation. We use neuroimaging (fMRI) to better understand how the brain makes addiction decisions, and what individual characteristics relate to impulsivity and predict addiction risk. Collaborations with other IU School of Medicine and IU Indianapolis researchers target risk factors, brain dopamine systems, the use of controlled alcohol administration and behavioral sensation seeking. Our recent work in the area of recovery and relapse prevention targets decision-making by invoking the future. My hope is that these approaches will eventually enable better outcomes for addiction treatment.