Summers Lab
Laboratory of Molecular Neuropsychoecoendochemistry
Research Interests
Our laboratory focuses on the impact of social and environmental stressors on molecular, neural and endocrine responses to influence adaptive behavior and activities like social interaction, learning, developing social rank relationships, depression, anxiety, biological rhythms, reproduction, and coping with stress. Of special interest are how and why individuals differ, and how responses are characterized temporally. The investigations include the connection between molecular, neural and endocrine responses and variability in the magnitude and way in which individuals respond to and cope with stress behaviorally. We have recently developed a new model that includes aggression, learned escape and conditioned submission. We are interested in elucidating the mechanisms by which experience modulates the responsiveness of neural and hormonal stress responses. We focus on the relationships of molecular genetics, physiology and anatomy with behavior, ecology and evolution.
Selected Lab Publications A complete listing of Lab publications
Arendt DH, J Hassell, Hao Li, JK Achua, DJ Guarnieri, RJ DiLeone, PJ Ronan, and CH Summers 2014 Anxiolytic function of the orexin 2 /
hypocretin A receptor in the basolateral amygdala. Psychoneuroendocrinology 40C: 17-26
Carpenter RE, B Sabirzhanov, TR Summers, TG Clark, J Keifer and CH Summers 2023 Anxiolytic reversal of classically conditioned /
chronic stress-induced gene expression and learning in the stress alternatives model. Behavioural Brain Research
440: 114258: 1-10
Korzan WJ and CH Summers 2021 Evolution of stress responses refine mechanisms of social rank.
Neurobiology of Stress 100328: 1-19
Krupp KT, JDW Yaeger, LJ Ledesma, MHH Withanage, JJ Gale, CB Howe, TJ Allen, M Sathyanesan, SS Newton,
CH Summers 2024 Single administration of a psychedelic [(R)-DOI] influences coping strategies
to an escapable social stress. Neuropharmacology 252: 109949: 1-15.
Ronan PJ, WJ Korzan, PL Johnson, CA Lowry, KJ Renner, CH Summers 2023 Prior stress and vasopressin
promote corticotropin-releasing factor inhibition of serotonin release in the central nucleus
of the amygdala. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17: 1148292: 1-14
Smith JP, MA Prince, JK Achua, JM Robertson, RT Anderson, PJ Ronan, and CH Summers 2016 Intensity of anxiety is modified
via complex integrative stress circuitries. Psychoneuroendocrinology 63: 351-361
Staton CD, JDW Yaeger, DD Khalid, F Haroun, BS Fernandez, JS Fernandez, BK Summers, TR Summers, M Sathyanesan, SS Newton,
CH Summers, 2018 Orexin 2 receptor stimulation enhances resilience, while orexin 2 inhibition promotes susceptibility,
to social stress, anxiety and depression. Neuropharmacology 143: 79-94.
Summers CH, JDW Yaeger, CD Staton, DH Arendt, TR Summers 2020 Orexin/hypocretin receptor modulation of anxiolytic
and antidepressive responses during social stress and decision-making: potential for therapy. Brain Research 1731: 146085: 1-15
Summers TR, TL Summers, RE Carpenter, JP Smith, SL Young, B Meyerink, TZ Orr, DH Arendt, and CH Summers 2017 Learning and
CRF-induced indecision during escape and submission in rainbow trout during socially aggressive interactions in the
Stress-Alternatives Model Frontiers in Neuroscience 11: 515: 1-13
Waters RP, M Rivalan, D Bangasser, J Deussing, M Ising, SK Wood, F Holsboer, CH Summers 2015 Evidence for the role of
corticotropin-releasing factor in major depression disorder Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 63: 351-361
Yaeger JDW, KT Krupp, BM Jacobs, BO Onserio, BL Meyerink, JT Cain, PJ Ronan, KJ Renner, RJ DiLeone, CH Summers 2022
Orexin 1 receptor antagonism in basolateral amygdala shifts the balance from pro- to anti-stress signaling and behavior.
Biological Psychiatry 91: 841-852