Kurt Fraser, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology

E-MAIL: [email protected]

Advising Statement

Lab website: www.fraserlab.net

Research Interests:

I am a behavioral and systems neuroscientist interested in motivational processes that promote reward seeking and punishment avoidance. One of the primary focuses of my work is the ability of contexts or states to regulate our desires and support adaptive behavior. Research in the lab routinely makes use of a variety of techniques such as in vivo electrophysiology, fiber photometry, calcium imaging, and optogenetics that are well-suited for understanding the precise computations and mechanisms that allow for behavioral flexibility. We primarily focus on neurobiological systems that converge on the striatum as targets for our work. We are particularly interested in fractionating neuromodulatory systems into discrete units to ascribe well-defined psychological processes to their activity. Our overarching goal is to understand the neural substrates of contextual control, how this psychological process is disrupted in psychiatric illness, and ultimately strive to identify novel treatments for these disorders.

Publications

  • Fraser KM, Kim TH, Castro M, Drieu C, Padovan-Hernandez Y, Chen B, Pat F, Ottenheimer DJ, Janak PH. Encoding and context-dependent control of reward consumption within the central nucleus of the amygdala. iScience. 2024 Apr 01;27(5):109652. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109652.
  • Fraser KM, Collins VL, Wolff AR, Ottenheimer DJ, Bornhoft KN, Pat F, Chen BJ, Janak PH, Saunders BT. Contexts facilitate dynamic value encoding in the mesolimbic dopamine system. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2023 Nov 5:2023.11.05.565687. doi: 10.1101/2023.11.05.565687.
  • Fraser KM, Chen BJ, Janak PH. Nucleus accumbens and dorsal medial striatal dopamine and neural activity are essential for action sequence performance. Eur J Neurosci. 2024 Jan;59(2):220-237. 
  • Fraser KM, Janak PH. Basolateral amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex, but not dorsal hippocampus, are necessary for the control of reward-seeking by occasion setters. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2023 Mar;240(3):623-635.
  • Fraser KM, Pribut HJ, Janak PH, Keiflin R. From prediction to action: Dissociable roles of ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra dopamine neurons in instrumental reinforcement. J Neurosci. 2023 May 24;43(21):3895-3908.
  • de Jong JW, Fraser KM, Lammel S. Mesoaccumbal dopamine heterogeneity: What do dopamine firing and release have to do with It? Annu Rev Neurosci. 2022 Jul 8;45:109-129. 
  • Fraser KM, Holland PC. Occasion setting. Behav Neurosci. 2019 Apr;133(2):145-175. 
Kurt Fraser