Research Interests

• Neural pathways of learning and memory
• Active avoidance behavior and  aversively motivated action
• Disorders of emotional memory (PTSD)

The brain contains multiple memory systems. While these systems often work together, they can also compete to influence behavior. A frightening emotional memory can render you immobile, even if  you know from experience that action is needed to keep you safe. How does your brain resolve this conflict? What are the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms by which an adaptive balance is struck? What factors allow one form of memory to win out over another? These questions are the focus of study in the Moscarello Lab.

Active avoidance behavior is the primary model paradigm we use to explore conflict between different types of memory. This task requires the subject to resolve contrasting forms of learning in order to produce adaptive behavior. To understand this phenomenon, we conduct behavioral experiments informed by learning theory and combine this approach with cutting edge neuroscientific techniques (e.g. DREADDs, optogenetics, etc). Our goal is to illuminate the basic structure and function of memory systems in the mammalian brain, as well as to understand the implications of our data for clinical issues such as trauma, anxiety and resilience.

Recent Publications

Moscarello JM (2020) Prefrontal cortex projections to the nucleus reuniens suppress freezing following two-way signaled avoidance training. Learning & Memory, 27: 119-123.

Krypotos AM, Moscarello JM, Sears RM, LeDoux JE, Galatzer-Levy I (2018) A principled method to identify individual differences and behavioral shifts in signaled active avoidance. Learning & Memory, 15(11): 564-568.

Moscarello JM, Maren S (2018) Flexibility in the face of fear: hippocampal-prefrontal regulation of fear and avoidance. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 19: 44-49.

Moscarello JM, Hartley CA (2017) Agency and the calibration of motivated behavior. Trends in Cognitive Science. 21(10): 725-735.

Boeke E, Moscarello JM, LeDoux JE, Phelps E, Hartley C (2017) Active avoidance: neural mechanisms and attenuation of Pavlovian conditioned responding. Journal of Neuroscience, 37(18): 4808-18.

LeDoux JE, Moscarello J, Sears R, Campese V (2017) The birth, death, and resurrection of avoidance: a reconceptualization of a troubled paradigm. Molecular Psychiatry, 22: 24-36.

Affiliated Research Cluster

Neuroscience. Memory systems; psychological and neurobiological mechanisms of emotional memory; rodent models.
Affective Science. Control and fear; aversive memory.