I am an Assistant Research Professor in the Zhang lab, and I will be utilizing rsfMRI, chemogenetics and optogenetics to study the mechanisms behind changes in neural connectivity in the context of social behavior and drug addiction.
I received a Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 2016, where I studied the neural mechanisms underlying the effects of natural reward experience on drug-seeking behavior in male rats, under the mentorship of Lique Coolen. I then completed a postdoctoral position with Peter Kalivas at the Medical University of South Carolina. There, I worked on a novel pharmacological treatment for nicotine addiction in a rat model of drug self-administration and relapse. Prior to joining the Zhang lab, I also worked on a wide breadth of research topics in the Department of Developmental Neurobiology Behavioral Core at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. In this position, I gained more experience with social, locomotor and learning and memory behavioral assays and focused on bringing innovative techniques to complement the behavior.
Email: lqb5494@psu.edu
Selected publications:
Beloate, LN, Coolen, LM. (2018) Chapter 9: The effects of sexual experience on psychostimulant- and opiate- induced behavior and neural plasticity in the mesocorticolimbic pathway. In Foster Olive, M. (Ed.), Animal Models for Examining Social Influences on Drug Addiction, International Review of Neurobiology (Vol. 140, pp. 249-269). Elsevier.
Neuhofer, D, Spencer, S Chioma, VC, Beloate, LN, Schwartz, D., Kalivas, PW. (2020) The loss of NMDAR-dependent LTD following cannabinoid self-administration is restored by positive allosteric modulation of CB1 receptors. Addiction Biology. 25(6): e12843.
Beloate, LN, Kalivas, PW. (2019) Chapter 17: Role of the extracellular matrix in addiction. In Torregrossa, M. (Ed.), Neural Mechanisms of Addiction (pp. 247 – 258). Elsevier.
Beloate, LN, Coolen, LM. (2017) Influences of social reward experience on behavioral responses to drugs of abuse: Review of shared and divergent neural plasticity mechanisms for sexual reward and drugs of abuse. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 83: 356-372.
Beloate, LN, Omrani, A, Adan, RA, Webb, IC, Coolen, LM. (2016) Ventral tegmental area dopamine cell activation during male rat sexual behavior regulates neuroplasticity and d-Amphetamine cross-sensitization following sexual abstinence. Journal of Neuroscience. 36(38): 9949-9816. (featured in “JNeurosci Highlights”)
Beloate, LN, Weems, PW, Casey, GM*, Webb, IC, Coolen, LM. (2016) Nucleus accumbens NMDA receptor activation regulates amphetamine cross-sensitization and deltaFosB expression following sexual experience in male rats. Neuropharmacology. 101:154-164.