LINDA P. SPEARDistinguished Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of Florida
Area: Behavioral Neuroscience
E-mail: lspear@binghamton.edu
Phone: 607-777-2825
Office: Science IV, Room 161
Curriculum vitae (.pdf, 350.7kb)
Currently serving on the External Advisory Board, National Institute of Alcohol and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Has served as President of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society (1995-96), International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (1994-95), and Neurobehavioral Teratology Society (1991-92). Other society activities have included serving on the Publications and Communications Board of the American Psychological Association (APA) (2001-2006) and as Chair of the animal research committees of APA and the Committee on Problems in Drug Dependence (CPDD). Prior NIH service has included membership on the External Advisory Board of the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), NIAAA's Underage Drinking Steering Committee, and on study sections for NIDA (1985-89), NIAAA (1990-94), and National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) (1996-2000). Current editorial activities include serving as a consulting editor for Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, Behavioral Neuroscience, Neurotoxicology and Teratology, and Infant Behavior and Development.
Developmental psychopharmacology and the behavioral neuroscience of development, with a particular emphasis on neurobehavioral function during adolescence.
In our basic research laboratory, we use a simple animal model of adolescence in the rat to examine neurobehavioral function during adolescence, with a particular emphasis on discerning factors contributing to the frequent onset of alcohol and drug use during adolescence and the development of problematic patterns of use among some adolescents. In work funded by NIAAA, we are exploring the interrelationships among adolescent-specific patterns of sensitivities to different ethanol effects, age-related vulnerabilities to stressors, and hormonal changes associated with puberty, as well as mechanisms underlying these effects and their contribution to ethanol intake during adolescence. In work funded by NIDA, we are exploring whether adolescents differ from adults in terms of the hedonic value ("liking") and incentive motivation ("wanting") they show towards rewarding stimuli to determine if adolescents more avidly seek such stimuli because they find natural rewards and drugs particularly rewarding, or because they are attempting to compensate for an age-related insensitivity to rewarding stimuli.
I believe that far more graduate training occurs in the laboratory, in the library, and through formal and informal interactions with faculty and graduate students collaborators and mentors than in the classroom. I strive to provide each student with individually-tailored research training within a laboratory environment congenial for research training, for producing a strong record of research accomplishments, and for establishing a life-long pattern of learning. To be a life-long learner is a privilege. If you don't love the work you do, you are just working to ransom back your life.
(out of approx. 200)
Spear, L.P. & Varlinskaya, E.I. (2005). Adolescence: Alcohol sensitivity, tolerance, and intake. In M. Galanter (Ed.), Recent Developments in Alcoholism, Vol.17: Alcohol Problems in Adolescents and Young Adults (pp.143-159). Hingham, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Ristuccia, R.C. & Spear, L.P (2005). Sensitivity and tolerance to autonomic effects of ethanol in adolescent and adult rats during repeated vapor inhalation. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 20: 1809-1820.
Doremus, T.L., Brunell , S.C., Pottayil, R. & Spear, L.P (2005) Factors influencing elevated ethanol consumption in adolescent relative to adult rats. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 29: 1796-1808.
Wilmouth, C.E. & Spear, L.P (2006) Withdrawal from chronic nicotine in adolescent and adult rats. Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, 85: 648-657.
Varlinskaya, E.I. & Spear, L.P (2007) Chronic tolerance to the social consequences of ethanol in adolescent and adult Sprague-Dawley rats. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 29: 23-30.
