About the group

Electrical and chemical signals in the physical brain give rise to experiences such as the pleasure we experience when we take a sip of wine or reunite with our loved ones. But how this happens is still poorly understood.

L.A.B. lab uses cognitive, social and affective neuroscience methods to probe the hedonic brain. Most of our work involves drugs: we study the effects of medications that bind to receptors in the brain. Using drugs that activate of block opioid receptors, we map out the functions of the brain’s own opioid system (‘endorphins’) and the effects of commonly used opioid analgesics. We believe that understanding how the healthy human brain encodes subjective and objective value is crucial for improving treatment of e.g. substance use disorder and chronic pain.

Much of our work is translational, aiming to fill the knowledge gap between rodent models and patient studies. Increasingly, we also study effects of medication use in different clinical populations, such as surgery patients (see e.g., www.norop.net). 

Projects

Brain processes of reward and decision making: stress and drug effects

In this project, we hypothesised that addictive drugs have different mechanisms of action depending on how one is feeling before taking the drug. Negative feelings and a wish for relief could underpin the increased risk of addiction observed in people suffering from depression, anxiety, a history of childhood trauma, and poor social support networks. Results from this study showed that stress increased abuse liability of opioids in men independently of stress relief (see osf.io/v8dxy).

We also investigate the role of the endogenous opioid system (which uses for instance endorphins as signal transmitters) in stress responses and their modulation.