Tiffany Love, PhD, Psychiatry
Departments: Psychiatry - Assistant Professor
Divisions: Adult Psychiatry
Background:
Tiffany Love received a B.S. in Biology and Psychology from the University of New Mexico in 2002 and completed her PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Michigan in 2010. In work supported by a National Institute on Drug Abuse Interdisciplinary Training Grant in Substance Abuse, her PhD research focused on examining the relationships between environmental, genetic and personality factors which posed as risk factors for substance abuse and measures of dopaminergic and opioidergic functioning in healthy, non-drug using subjects utilizing positron emission tomography. Following her postdoctoral fellowship at the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, she transitioned into a junior faculty position in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan in 2012. She is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Utah.
Current work:
My primary research goals are directed toward understanding the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie drug use, abuse and risk. During my graduate and postdoctoral work I utilized multiple neuroimaging techniques to examine how factors associated with an increased risk in the formation of substance use disorders (e.g. sex, personality, genetics, environmental pressures) related to differences in underlying neurobiological functioning within motivational systems.
Currently, I am exploring how oxytocin, a neuropeptide best known for its effects on social behavior and presently being investigated as a treatment option for substance dependence, shapes activity in the neural circuits responsible for the processing of motivationally relevant stimuli. The results of these studies will provide a better understanding of the role oxytocin plays in influencing networks involved in the pathophysiology of substance abuse disorders.
Specialties: Positron Emission Tomography
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
