Patricia Janak is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

who studies the biological basis of behavior through

associative learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machines; there is also evidence for some kind of learnin ...

. Janak applies this research to pathological behaviors, such as

addiction Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use o ...

and

posttraumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...

, to improve understanding of how

stimuli A stimulus is something that causes a physiological response. It may refer to: *Stimulation **Stimulus (physiology), something external that influences an activity **Stimulus (psychology), a concept in behaviorism and perception *Stimulus (economi ...

affect relapse and responses.Brooks, Kell
"Johns Hopkins appoints three new Bloomberg Distinguished Professors"
''JHU Hub'', Baltimore, 11 June 2014. Retrieved on 11 May 2015.

Biography

Janak was born in 1965 to Peter Janak and Bonnie Stringfellow. Janak began training in biological science and behavioral science as an undergraduate double major in Biology and Psychology at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

. She earned master's and doctoral degrees in Psychology from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, the latter under Joe L. Martinez Jr. While completing her doctoral work, she also held adjunct faculty positions at the

Wright Institute The Wright Institute is a private graduate school focused on psychology and located in Berkeley, California. History The institute was founded by Nevitt Sanford in 1968 when he left Stanford. Dr. Sanford first gained prominence as a co-author of ...

Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic Mis ...

, and

California State University, East Bay California State University, East Bay (Cal State East Bay, CSU East Bay, or CSUEB) is a public university in Hayward, California. The university is part of the 23-campus California State University system and offers 136 undergraduate and 60 pos ...

. She completed post-doctoral work at the

National Institute on Drug Abuse The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is a United States federal government research institute whose mission is to "advance science on the causes and consequences of drug use and addiction and to apply that knowledge to improve individual a ...

, a branch of the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

, and in physiology and pharmacology at the

Wake Forest School of Medicine Wake Forest University School of Medicine is the medical school of Wake Forest University, with two campuses located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It is affiliated with Atrium Health Wake Forest B ...

under the guidance of Donald J Woodward, who pioneered the development of "awake-animal behavioral and multi-neuronal recording techniques" in the 1990s. Janak joined the faculty of the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...

as an assistant professor in the

Ernest Gallo Ernest J. Gallo (March 18, 1909March 6, 2007) was an American businessman and philanthropist. Gallo co-founded the E & J Gallo Winery in Modesto, California. Early life Gallo was born on March 18, 1909, in Jackson, California. She was named the Howard J. Weinberger Endowed Chair in Addiction Research at USCF in 2011. In June 2014, Janak was named a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at

for her accomplishments as an interdisciplinary researcher and excellence in teaching.Anderson, Nick
" Bloomberg pledges $350 million to Johns Hopkins University "
''The Washington Post'', Washington, D.C., 23 January 2013. Retrieved on 12 March 2015. The Bloomberg Distinguished Professorship program was established in 2013 by a gift from

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...

. Janak holds joint appointments in the

Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences The Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts & Sciences is an academic division of the Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. The school is located on the university's Homewood campus. It is the core of Johns Hopkin ...

' Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and the

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hospi ...

Solomon H. Snyder Solomon Halbert Snyder (born December 26, 1938) is an American neuroscientist who has made wide-ranging contributions to neuropharmacology and neurochemistry. He studied at Georgetown University, and has conducted the majority of his research at ...

Department of Neuroscience.

Research

Janak is an investigator in the field of the biological basis of behavior working on

. Her work empirically bridges formal learning theories and systems

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

in the

mammalian brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a v ...

. Using models based on theories of learning in combination with laboratory experiments, Janak investigates associative processes and the hierarchical organization of relational and representational

neural encoding Neural coding (or Neural representation) is a neuroscience field concerned with characterising the hypothetical relationship between the Stimulus (physiology), stimulus and the individual or Neuronal ensemble, ensemble neuronal responses and the re ...

. Electrophysiological recordings from neurons in defined circuits are done using pharmacological and neurophysiological tools to manipulate circuit properties. She has a demonstrated interest in a translational approach to clinical conditions. The fundamental aspects of learning and memory in the models she studies are basic to a broad range of human behaviors and can serve as a guide to intervention and therapies when capacities fail to develop normally or break down through disease. Her most cited article,Scopu
"Author: Janak, Patricia H."
''

Scopus Scopus is Elsevier's abstract and citation database launched in 2004. Scopus covers nearly 36,377 titles (22,794 active titles and 13,583 inactive titles) from approximately 11,678 publishers, of which 34,346 are peer-reviewed journals in top-l ...

'', Amsterdam, 13 May 2015. Retrieved on 13 May 2015. titled, "A causal link between prediction errors, dopamine neurons and learning," was published in 2013 in ''

Nature Neuroscience ''Nature Neuroscience'' is a monthly scientific journal published by Nature Publishing Group. Its focus is original research papers relating specifically to neuroscience and was established in May 1998. The chief editor is Shari Wiseman. According ...

''. Janak has 102 total publications, including 11 review papers, with more than 3300 total citations and an H index of 38. She has been a member of the

Society for Neuroscience The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is a professional society, headquartered in Washington, DC, for basic scientists and physicians around the world whose research is focused on the study of the brain and nervous system. It is especially well kn ...

since 1987 and the Research Society on Alcoholism since 1994. Janak has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses on a variety of topics including psychology, data analysis, behavioral neuroscience, and drug addiction. At Johns Hopkins, Janak is teaching graduate psychology and neuroscience courses and an undergraduate course on learning and memory, and actively participating in the interdisciplinary Science of Learning Institute.

Publications

Ahima has more than 11,000 citations in Google Scholar and an h-index of 60.
Pubmed citations

Google Scholar citations
Selected Publications * 2015 with KM Tye, ''From circuits to behaviour in the amygdala'', in: ''Nature''. Vol. 517, nº 7534; 284–292. * 2013 with EE Steinberg, R Keiflin, JR Boivin, IB Witten, K Deisseroth, ''A causal link between prediction errors, dopamine neurons and learning'', in: ''Nature Neuroscience''. Vol. 16, nº 7; 966–973. * 2011 with IB Witten, EE Steinberg, SY Lee, TJ Davidson, KA Zalocusky, M Brodsky, et al., ''Recombinase-driver rat lines: tools, techniques, and optogenetic application to dopamine-mediated reinforcement'', in: ''Neuron''. Vol. 72, nº 5; 721–733. * 2012 with LH Corbit, H Nie, ''Habitual alcohol seeking: time course and the contribution of subregions of the dorsal striatum'', in: ''Biological Psychiatry''. Vol. 72, nº 5; 389–395. * 2004 with NNH McGough, DY He, ML Logrip, J Jeanblanc, K Phamluong, K Luong, V Kharazia, D Ron, ''RACK1 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor: a homeostatic pathway that regulates alcohol addiction'', in: ''Journal of Neuroscience''. Vol. 24, nº 46; 10542–10552. * 2015 with R Keiflin, ''Dopamine prediction errors in reward learning and addiction: from theory to neural circuitry'', in: ''Neuron''. Vol. 88, nº 2; 247–263.

References

External links

Webpage at Johns Hopkins University

Neuroscience webpage at Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins Science of Learning Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Janak, Patricia American neuroscientists American women neuroscientists Johns Hopkins University faculty Rutgers University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Wake Forest University alumni Clinical psychologists Living people 1964 births American women academics 21st-century American women

Biography

Research

Publications

See also

References

External links