Tapasya Pal
Addiction and mental health issues are pressing concerns in the Waikato region. These disorders stem from impairments in brain pathways, and since autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder, people with autism are 3 times more likely to develop behavioural addicitons.
Current treatments rely heavily on antipsychotics, which can cause side effects because they broadly target these chemicals without addressing the underlying imbalance. There is an urgent need for personalized, culturally responsive approaches that improve social interaction and dietary habits without medication. Our research aims to uncover the neural mechanisms behind these behaviours and explore early interventions that could restore balance in the reward system.
The project seeks to identify how dopamine and serotonin systems differ in autism and how these differences affect responses to social and food-related rewards. Specifically, we aim to:
We will use a validated rat model of autism created by prenatal exposure to valproate. For Aim 1, we will quantify dopamine and serotonin neurons and analyze gene expression using in situ hybridization and real-time PCR. We will also study the effect of intranasal oxytocin on these pathways. For Aim 2, we will employ the conditioned place preference paradigm to measure how animals associate rewards with food or social stimuli. For Aim 3, we will pair-house animals during a critical developmental period to test whether social priming can rescue atypical feeding behaviours. Neurohistological analyses will follow to determine changes in dopamine and serotonin systems. These methods will provide insights into the neural basis of reward processing and its modulation through early interventions.
Addiction and mental health issues are significant health concerns in the Waikato region. These challenges can manifest as behavioural addictions (e.g., gambling, gaming, excessive internet use), and mental health disorders(e.g.,
anxiety, depression). Such conditions stem from disruptions in the brain’s reward circuit, an evolutionarily conserved system that plays a vital role in learning and reinforcing behaviours essential for survival and well-being, such as eating and socializing. Importantly, studying this circuit in animal models like rats provides valuable insights that are translatable to humans since it is evolutionarily conserved.
Individuals with autism often experience high levels of anxiety, are frequently characterized as “picky eaters” with a preference for a very specific type of foods and tend to avoid social activities. Physiologically, these tendencies are linked to differences in how the autistic brain processes rewards, placing the affected individuals at 3 to 5 times higher risk for mental health disorders like anxiety, as well as behavioural addictions such as excessive gaming.
Understanding the brain’s reward system in the context of autism presents unique challenges.
This research aims to explore brain pathways involved in food and social rewards in model animals to pinpoint why some of the behavioural deficits occur in autism. Autism presents unique challenges because it involves more complex disruptions in these reward pathways. Our goal is to develop personalized treatments to help individuals with autism feel more comfortable in social situations and broaden their dietary choices.
About 80% of autistic individuals experience clinical anxiety while in the general population while the lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorders is about 18–20% in the general population. Mental health issues are particularly pressing health concerns in the Waikato region with especially poorer outcomes in Māori. This work will provide the basis for personalized treatment in autism to enhance social connections and promote healthier eating, without depending on antipsychotics. We will identify how dysregulated dopamine and serotonin underpin social behaviours and food preferences in autism.
We hypothesize that behavioural anomalies observed in autism are due to imbalanced neural fi ring and neurotransmitter release in brain areas governing/controlling reward and motivation. The University of Waikato has the conglomeration of expertise to undertake this research. By understanding these brain pathways, we will be able to create more targeted treatments to offset the deficits of the reward system without negative side effects. These specialized therapies will improve social interactions, reduce repetitive behaviours, and support healthier eating habits in people with autism. Our findings will also lead to new diagnostic tools to detect reward-related symptoms early, helping doctors provide more personalized care.
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