Christopher Pittenger, PhD

My research covers a broad range of technical and conceptual approaches in both humans and mice, all centered on questions of the function and dysfunction of the cortico-basal ganglia circuitry. Some aspects are explicitly clinical, focusing on the pathophysiology and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette syndrome, and related conditions. Others pose more basic questions, including personality and cognitive variation in the general human population, sex differences in basal ganglia function (in both humans and mice), mechanisms of synaptic and circuit plasticity, and the role of specific components of the basal ganglia circuitry (modulatory neurotransmitters including histamine and acetylcholine; specific populations of interneuron) in information processing and cognition. This latter set of interests aligns well with the mission of the Wu-Tsai institute, in both the Neurodevelopment & Plasticity and the Neurocognition & Behavior centers. My research program has always been highly collaborative - this is essential give its technical breadth, which extends into numerous areas in which I am not myself expert.

Chris Pittenger completed his MD and PhD at Columbia University and his clinical training and research fellowship at Yale. His research program, which runs the gamut from mechanistic studies in mouse models through neuroimaging, behavioral, and treatment research in human subjects, focuses on the cortical and basal ganglia circuitry and on its perturbation in disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome. He seeks to harness improved understanding of this circuitry to support the development of new treatments, including glutamate modulating drugs, psychedelics, and brain stimulation.