Dr. Byron A. Heidenreich
Office - DEG 446, Lab – FSA 221 Phone - 8-7106, Email - baheide@ilstu.edu
Neuropharmacology and Neurodegenerative Diseases
Psychological problems and biological disorders are often so closely related that Byron Heidenreich decided long ago to study both in his search for answers about the brain and human behavior. He prepared for the challenge by earning a doctorate in clinical psychology at Indiana University before completing postdoctoral neuropharmacological work at Chicago's Loyola University and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Heidenreich remains interested in psychological problems that have a biological aspect and are treated with medications that alter brain activity. An example is the use of Prozac to conquer depression. He works to provide fundamental knowledge about the brain that chemists ultimately need to produce new and improved drugs that will help people with psychological disorders. "It's a very straightforward but complicated goal," Heidenreich says. "As much as we have learned about how the brain works, there is at least as much we don't know."
Heidenreich builds on existing knowledge by focusing on the function of serotonin. "It is one of the chemicals that brain cells use to communicate with each other," he says, explaining that drugs such as Prozac work by increasing serotonin levels. Heidenreich's research seeks to answer the question of what role serotonin plays in behaviors as varied as learning and drug abuse.
His work involves injecting rats with various drugs to see how brain activity is altered. He records the electrical activity of individual brain cells in rats to map out different regions of the brain and determine how they work together.
Although a rat's brain is similar in its nerve cells and functioning to that of a human, Heidenreich's research is complicated by the differences that do exist and the fact that the brain constantly changes as a result of experience and age. Consequently he is also exploring the biological aspects of drug abuse and diseases related to brain disorders that hinder the elderly, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.