Integrated Calendar

Understanding the neural circuitry underlying addictive behavior is essential as a first step towards treating addiction. The nucleus accumbens and the ventral pallidum are two interconnected regions known to mediate reward-related behavior. Using a multidisciplinary approach I describe synaptic changes in both regions following exposure to cocaine. However, the connectivity patterns between these regions and how specific projections are affected by drugs of abuse remain elusive. In an attempt to elucidate the nature of these connections I will show preliminary results calling for a re-examination of the current thinking about accumbal inputs to the ventral pallidum. Future work will engage in describing how these pathways are differentially changed in drug addiction.

A new approach is applied to the discussion of perfect imaging in the quasi-static regime. This is based upon the quasi-static eigenstates of Maxwell’s equations. Among the surprising results is that, in the limit where ε(1)/ε(2 )= –1 and ε(1), ε(2) are both real, the electric field always diverges in some parts of the system. Moreover, the dissipation rate sometimes also diverges.