ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ

• Teaching Interest: Biological Basis of Behavior, Drug and Alcohol Addiction, Stress and Health, Sensation & Perception
  
• Research: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Addiction, Stress and Health, Learning and Memory, Psychoneuroimmunology
• Current Projects: Preventative treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder; Prayer as a mediator of the physiological stress response; Perceptions of anger, addiction and religious beliefs in online videogaming.

• SPIRE Post-Doctoral Fellowship, University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
• Ph.D., University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
• B.S., Rider University

Dr. Jennifer Thomson enjoys spending time with family, genealogy, and visiting civil war battlefields.

Recent Publications:

•  McGinnis, C., Szczytkowski, J.L., Skinner, S. (In preparation).  Perceptions of Anger, Addiction and Religious Beliefs in Online Videogaming.
•  Huston, L.W., Szczytkowski, J.L., Saurer, T.B., Lebonville, C.L., Fuchs, R.A., Lysle, D.T. (In Press).  Region-Specific Contribution of the VTA to Heroin-Induced Conditioned Immunomodulation.  Brain, Behavior and Immunity.
•  Szczytkowski, J.L., Lebonville, C.L., Hutson, L.W., Fuchs, R.A., Lysle, D.T. (2013). Heroin-induced conditioned immunomodulation requires expression of IL-1B in the dorsal hippocampus.  Brain, Behavior and Immunity, 30, 95-102. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2013.01.076.
•  Szczytkowski-Thomson, J.L., Lebonville, C.L., Lysle, D.T. (2013). Morphine prevents the development of stress-enhanced fear learning.  Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, 103(3), 672-677.
•  Szczytkowski, J.L., Fuchs, R.A., & Lysle, D.T. (2011). Ventral tegmental area-basolateral amygdala-nucleus accumbens shell neurocircuitry controls the expression of heroin-conditioned immunomodulation.  Journal of Neuroimmunology, 237, 47-56.
• Szczytkowski, J.L., & Lysle, D.T.  (2011). Conditioned Immunomodulation. In T. Schachtman & S. Reilly (Eds.), Associative Learning and Conditioning: Human and Animal Applications.  (pp. 191-212). New York: Oxford University Press.
• Szczytkowski, J.L., & Lysle, D.T. (2010) Dopamine D1 receptors within the basolateral amygdala mediate heroin-induced conditioned immunomodulation. Journal of Neuroimmunology, 226, 38-47.

Recent Research Talks:    

• Szczytkowski, J.L. "Pavlovian conditioning with Opiate Drugs: Health Implications and Neural Circuitry". Penn State Hershey Medical Center.  Hershey, PA. Oct. 2013.
• Szczytkowski, J.L.  “Heroin-Induced Conditioned Immunomodulation.” Pavlovian Society Annual Meeting. Milwaukee, WI. Oct.  2011.
• Szczytkowski, J.L.  “Conditioned Immunomodulation.”  NIH Workshop: The Placebo Effect.  Bethesda, MD.  28 Jan. 2010.

Recent Poster Presentations:    

• Szczytkowski-Thomson, J.L. (March 2014): Opioids prevent the expression of fear in an animal model of post-traumatic stress disorder.  Poster presented at the meeting of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science, Selinsgrove, PA.
• Szczytkowski-Thomson, J.L. (October 2012). Morphine prevents the development of stress-enhanced fear learning in an animal model of PTSD.  Poster presented at the meeting of The Pavlovian Society, Jersey City, NJ.
• Szczytkowski, J.L., Lebonville, C.L., & Lysle, D.T. (2011, October) Heroin-Induced Conditioned Immunomodulation: Neural Circuitry.  Poster presentation at the Pavlovian Society annual meeting, Milwaukee, WI.
• Szczytkowski, J.L., & Lysle, D.T. (2010, April) Functional disconnection of the Ventral Tegmental Area-Basolateral Amygdala-Nucleus Accumbens Circuit Disrupts Heroin-Induced Conditioned Immunomodulation.  Poster presentation at the Society on Neuroimmune Pharmacology annual meeting, Manhattan Beach, CA.

Recent Student Presentations:

• Pusey, J.M., Pigliacampi, C.L., Thomson, J.L. (May 2014). Pharmaceutical manipulation of fear learning in an animal model of Post-traumatic Stress disorder.  Abstract presented at the annual Research Symposium for the School of Science, Engineering and Health at ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ College in Mechanicsburg, PA.
• Garber, J., Sargent, C., Thomson, J. (April 2014).  How Prayer Mediates the Body's Physiological Response to Stressors.  Abstract presented at the Research Symposium for the School of business, Education and Social Sciences at ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ College in Mechanicsburg, PA.