David Morilak, PhD
Professor
Dr. Morilak’s research is on brain mechanisms underlying the adaptive response to stress, chronic stress-induced neural and behavioral pathology, and effective treatments for stress-related psychiatric disorders such as depression and PTSD using rat models. His lab investigates pharmacological, cognitive-behavioral and device-based therapies. They pioneered the investigation of extinction learning as a rat model of prolonged exposure therapy, and its use as a testing platform for novel adjunct treatments to enhance therapeutic efficacy. More broadly, his lab studies mechanisms of cognitive impairment and its treatment in conditions of compromised brain function, ranging from depression, PTSD and schizophrenia to hormone deprivation therapy for prostate cancer.