School of Medicine

Faculty Interests Database

Peter Winsauer, PhD

School of
/ Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center of Excellence
PWINSA@lsuhsc.edu

Grant Review Committees Served on:   NIH  

   
Keywords Associated with Work Along with its other effects, alcohols act as positive GABA(A) modulators and CNS depressants.
Another class of drugs that can be abused and produce physical dependence; however, drugs from this class are also being examined for their therapeutic potential.
Many clinically important classes of drug such as the benzodiazepines, barbiturates, and neurosteroids act as positive GABA(A) modulators in the brain. Alcohols are another class of drug that can positively modulate the GABA(A) receptor.
A class of drugs that can lead to drug abuse and drug dependence.
Pharmacology Behavioral Pharmacology, Psychopharmacology
This family of proteins is relatively unstudied, and the purpose of these proteins remains somewhat obscure. Shisa7, for example, serves as a chaperone and auxiliary protein for GABA(A) receptors in several key areas of the brain (e.g., hippocampus).
Primary Research / Clinical / Teaching Interests Expertise in using operant conditioning to study the effects of drugs on learning and memory. Operant-conditioning procedures can also be used to study the discriminative-stimulus and reinforcing effects of drugs.
Secondary Research / Clinical / Teaching Interests Interested in developing therapeutics for drug abuse and drug dependence.
Unique Equipment Used Operant boxes, 28-volt power supplies, 28v/5v interfaces, electromechanical feeders, activity chambers, 8-arm radial maze, and nonhuman primate response panels
Unique Techniques Used or Developed These procedures assess the capacity of drugs to produce antinociception using a variety of techniques, including warm-water tail withdrawal and the electronic von Frey test following CFA administration.
These procedures establish the subjective effects of drugs (e.g., euphoria, sedation, etc.) as discriminative stimuli for reinforcement in two operant chambers
These procedures are used to assess a subject's preference or choice to consume a drug such as alcohol over other substances such as water. While these two-bottle choice procedures are viewed differently than self-administration procedures they have been accepted as means of examining the reinforcing effects of the drug.
Operant techniques for studying learning and memory in a variety of species, including mice, rats, pigeons, and nonhuman primates.
These operant procedures determine of particular drugs can serve as reinforcers or reinforcing stimuli. These procedures are generally considered the gold standard for assessing the reinforcing effects of drugs of abuse.
Last Updated: 07/29/2026

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