Murrough Lab
Principal Investigator: James Warren Murrough
Institution: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York, NY)
Primary Subfield: Neuroscience
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
Depression is a devastating public health problem, yet the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying distinct aspects of the disorder remain largely unknown. Convergent evidence from animal and human studies have strongly implicated functional perturbations in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) in depression. However, it is not known how dysfunction within specific sub-circuits of this heterogenous structure map to specific depression-related symptom domains. This gap in knowledge concerning the pathophysiology of depression is a major impediment to the advancement of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to this disabling disorder. To address this gap, we propose a rigorous translational neuroscience study to define the distinct circuit-specific mechanisms of anhedonia and anxiety in humans with depression, building upon work in non- human primates, and converging human evidence from our laboratories. In marmosets, selective over-activation of Brodmann Area 25 (BA25) within the sgACC via glutamate re-uptake inhibition causally leads to deficits in anticipatory arousal – an established analogue of anhedonia in humans. Critically, these behavioral deficits are selectivel…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R01MH134045-04: Neural Circuit-Specific Mechanisms of Ketamine's Effect on Anhedonia and Anxiety in Depression Using Ultra-High Field 7-Tesla MRI (2026)
- 1R01MH141038-01A1: Neuroimmune Mechanisms of Depression and Anhedonia (2026)
- 5R01MH134045-03: Neural Circuit-Specific Mechanisms of Ketamine's Effect on Anhedonia and Anxiety in Depression Using Ultra-High Field 7-Tesla MRI (2025)
- 5R01MH134045-02: Neural Circuit-Specific Mechanisms of Ketamine's Effect on Anhedonia and Anxiety in Depression Using Ultra-High Field 7-Tesla MRI (2024)
- 5U19AT010835-05: Influence of Dietary Botanical Supplements on Biological and Behavioral Resilience (2024)
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