
Contact Information
Urbana, IL 61801
Research Areas
Research Description
My laboratory is broadly interested in exploring how genes and environment affect voluntary behavior. My early work involved a selective breeding experiment in which mice were bred to display extremely high levels of voluntary physical exercise on running wheels. Results of pharmacological studies and brain imaging suggested that the neural basis of motivation for high running shared many features in common with that of motivation to self-administer drugs of abuse. One of the main focuses of my current research program is to study the extent to which the physiological bases of natural forms of motivation (such as motivation for food, sex or exercise) overlap with drug-induced motivation. Current projects include: 1) Using high-resolution brain imaging (immunohistochemical detection of c-Fos and Zif268) to identify brain regions that become activated when mice are placed into an environment where they had previously received a drug of abuse as compared to a natural reward, such as food or sex; 2) Studying the neural and genetic basis of excessive alcohol drinking in mouse models that are genetically predisposed to self administer intoxicating doses of ethanol; 3) Using selective breeding to develop lines of mice that display extremely high levels of physical activity in their home cages to study effects of genetic hyperactivity on learning and memory, aging, stress, responses to drugs of abuse and more generally to identify the genetic basis of hyperactivity and relationship to drug addiction; 4) Studying the effects of exercise on the morphology and physiology of the mouse brain to understand how exercise can improve learning and memory with an emphasis on relating the animal research to current human findings.
Education
Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
Affiliate, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
Recent Publications
Parker, C. G., Craig, S. E., Histed, A. R., Lee, J. S., Ibanez, E., Pronitcheva, V., & Rhodes, J. S. (2023). New cells added to the preoptic area during sex change in the common clownfish Amphiprion ocellaris. General and Comparative Endocrinology, 333, [114185]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygcen.2022.114185
Parker, C. G., Lee, J. S., Histed, A. R., Craig, S. E., & Rhodes, J. S. (2022). Stable and persistent male-like behavior during male-to-female sex change in the common clownfish Amphiprion ocellaris. Hormones and Behavior, 145, [105239]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2022.105239
Tracy, G. C., Wilton, A. R., Rhodes, J. S., & Chung, H. J. (2022). Heterozygous Deletion of Epilepsy Gene KCNQ2 Has Negligible Effects on Learning and Memory. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16, [930216]. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.930216
Gonzalez, J. A., Histed, A. R., Nowak, E., Lange, D., Craig, S. E., Parker, C. G., Kaur, A., Bhuvanagiri, S., Kroll, K. J., Martyniuk, C. J., Denslow, N. D., Rosenfeld, C. S., & Rhodes, J. S. (2021). Impact of bisphenol-A and synthetic estradiol on brain, behavior, gonads and sex hormones in a sexually labile coral reef fish. Hormones and Behavior, 136, [105043]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2021.105043
Kim, E. C., Zhang, J., Tang, A. Y., Bolton, E. C., Rhodes, J. S., Christian-Hinman, C. A., & Chung, H. J. (2021). Spontaneous seizure and memory loss in mice expressing an epileptic encephalopathy variant in the calmodulin-binding domain of Kv7.2. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(51), [e2021265118]. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2021265118