David Self, Ph.D.
Professor

Dr. Self received his bachelor’s in Zoology from Iowa State University in 1985, and worked as a biochemist at Endocrine Sciences in Los Angeles, CA until 1987. Dr. Self entered graduate school in 1987 in the Department of Pharmacology at UC Irvine, and received a Ph.D. there in 1992. Dr. Self was a postdoctoral fellow from 1992-1995 in the Division of Molecular Psychiatry at Yale University. Dr. Self was appointed to an Assistant Professorship in the Psychiatry Department at Yale University in 1996.

In late 2000, Dr. Self joined the UT Southwestern faculty as an Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Seay Center for Basic and Applied Research in Psychiatric Illness. Dr. Self has pioneered work on the role of neuroadaptations in addictive behavior, and has identified important neurobiological mechanisms underlying drug craving and relapse to drug seeking. In 1996, he was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award by the White House, and in 2006, the prestigious Daniel H. Efron Award by the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, for contributions relating to this work. Dr. Self was appointed Director of the Psychiatry Neuroscience Division in 2013. His laboratory continues to implement modern molecular technology in the study of addictive behavior.

Undergraduate

Iowa State Univ Science & Tech (1985), Zoology

Graduate School

University of California-Irvin (1992), Pharmacology

• Behavioral Neuroscience
• Neurobiology of Addiction
• Neuropharmacology
• Systems Neuroscience

Featured Publications

Overexpression of the histone dimethyltransferase G9a in nucleus accumbens shell increases cocaine self-administration, stress-induced reinstatement, and anxiety.

Anderson EM, Larson EB, Guzman D, Marie Wissman A, Neve RL, Nestler EJ, Self DW J. Neurosci. 2017 Dec

Inactivation of NMDA Receptors in the Ventral Tegmental Area During Cocaine Self-Administration Prevents GluA1 Up-Regulation but with Paradoxical Increases in Cocaine-Seeking Behavior.

Guzman D, Carreira MB, Friedman AK, Adachi M, Neve RL, Monteggia LM, Han MH, Cowan CW, Self DW J. Neurosci. 2017 Dec

BDNF-TrkB controls cocaine-induced dendritic spines in rodent nucleus accumbens dissociated from increases in addictive behaviors.

Anderson EM, Wissman AM, Chemplanikal J, Buzin N, Guzman D, Larson EB, Neve RL, Nestler EJ, Cowan CW, Self DW Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2017 Aug 114 35 9469-9474

Optogenetic stimulation of accumbens shell or shell projections to lateral hypothalamus produce differential effects on the motivation for cocaine.

Larson EB, Wissman AM, Loriaux AL, Kourrich S, Self DW J. Neurosci. 2015 Feb 35 8 3537-43

Overexpression of CREB in the nucleus accumbens shell increases cocaine reinforcement in self-administering rats.

Larson EB, Graham DL, Arzaga RR, Buzin N, Webb J, Green TA, Bass CE, Neve RL, Terwilliger EF, Nestler EJ, Self DW J. Neurosci. 2011 Nov 31 45 16447-57

Reinforcement-related regulation of AMPA glutamate receptor subunits in the ventral tegmental area enhances motivation for cocaine.

Choi KH, Edwards S, Graham DL, Larson EB, Whisler KN, Simmons D, Friedman AK, Walsh JJ, Rahman Z, Monteggia LM, Eisch AJ, Neve RL, Nestler EJ, Han MH, Self DW J. Neurosci. 2011 May 31 21 7927-37

Tropomyosin-related kinase B in the mesolimbic dopamine system: region-specific effects on cocaine reward.

Graham DL, Krishnan V, Larson EB, Graham A, Edwards S, Bachtell RK, Simmons D, Gent LM, Berton O, Bolanos CA, DiLeone RJ, Parada LF, Nestler EJ, Self DW Biol. Psychiatry 2009 Apr 65 8 696-701

Dynamic BDNF activity in nucleus accumbens with cocaine use increases self-administration and relapse.

Graham DL, Edwards S, Bachtell RK, DiLeone RJ, Rios M, Self DW Nat. Neurosci. 2007 Aug 10 8 1029-37

Extinction-induced upregulation in AMPA receptors reduces cocaine-seeking behaviour.

Sutton MA, Schmidt EF, Choi KH, Schad CA, Whisler K, Simmons D, Karanian DA, Monteggia LM, Neve RL, Self DW Nature 2003 Jan 421 6918 70-5

Opposite modulation of cocaine-seeking behavior by D1- and D2-like dopamine receptor agonists.

Self DW, Barnhart WJ, Lehman DA, Nestler EJ Science 1996 Mar 271 5255 1586-9

 Featured Books

Integrating Behavioral and Molecular Approaches in Mouse: Self-Administration Studies.. In In: Kuhn CM, Koob GF, editors. Advances in the Neuroscience of Addiction. 2nd edition. Chapter 5.

Graham DL, Self DW. (2010). Boca Raton (FL):, CRC Press

Dopamine receptor subtypes in reward and relapse.. In The Dopamine Receptors: Second Edition, Neve, K. ed.

Self, D.W. (2010). Humana Press

Behavioral Neuroscience of Drug Addiction. Current Topics in Behavioral Neuroscience Vol. 3

Self, D.W. and Staley, J.K. (Ed.) (2010). Berlin, Springer-Verlag

• American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
  Elected to Fellow (2011)
• Daniel H. Efron Research Award
  American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (2006)
• Lydia Bryant Test Professorship
  Dept. of Psychiatry. UT Southwestern Medical Center (2001)
• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)
  Awarded by the White House for "Innovative integration of molecular biology with behavioral, pharmacological and biochemical techniques in the study of drug addiction" (1996)

• American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
• College on Problems of Drug Dependence
• European Behavioural Pharmacology Society
• Society for Neuroscience
• Society of Biological Psychiatry