Part 1: Investigate the roll of predator-odor stress on escalation of cocaine self-administration in male and female rats. I measured how an established predator odor model of stress influences self-administered of intravenous (I.V.) cocaine intake in male and female rats in short- and long-access paradigms.

Part 2: Identify how short- and long-access cocaine self-administration influences neuropeptides of interest. Here I examined sex and time differences in the neurobiology of cocaine self-administering rats using Western Blots.

Part 3: My third project focused on the potential role of a pharmaceutical therapeutic to attenuate cocaine self-administration. Here, I studied sex differences in dose response curves in systemic and site-specific drug treatment prior to cocaine self-administration.