Psychology

Behavioral Neuroscience

PSY 101 - Introductory Psychology

PSY 330 - Foundations of Behavioral Neuroscience

My research uses rodent models to explore how factors such as psychiatric illness (e.g. schizophrenia) and environmental stressors (e.g. lead exposure) alter vulnerability to drug abuse. Using preclinical models, I examine how animals respond to common drugs of abuse and ways to help prevent addiction and relapse. I have a secondary area of interest in science education, looking at questions like how social media impacts perceptions of drug use and how media exposure changes stigma in addiction and other topics such as mass shootings, culminating in a book on our perception of fear and risk. 

My current research is focused around several themes:

• The relationship between schizophrenia and tobacco addiction. Using preclinical models, I explore how treatments for schizophrenia such as antipsychotics and chemicals within tobacco could lead to increased smoking in patients with schizophrenia.
• The effects of cannabinoids on processing. Specifically, I'm interested in how cannabinoids such as THC and CBD influence motivation for food.
• The intersection between drug addiction and media exposure. With a mass communication professor, I explore how media exposure changes our fears surrounding drug users and dealers, as well as expand our ideas about how media influences our perception of fear on a variety of subjects, including gun violence and terrorism.

Swalve, N., DeFoster, R., & Konoplyanko, M.* (2021) Poor and hurting: Media habits and views on drugs. SN Social Sciences, 1(1) 28

Swalve, N., Harwood, A. & Calhoun, E. (2020) Use of exam wrappers and measures of anxiety on test performance in gateway STEM courses at a small liberal arts college. College Teaching, 69(3) 138-149

Swalve, N. & Bierlein, E.* (2020) The anxiogenic effects of caffeine do not potentiate nicotine withdrawal in an elevated plus maze model of anxiety. Journal of Caffeine and Adenosine Research, 10(3) 110-116

Swalve, N., Mulholland, M.M., & Li, M. (2019) Alterations of acoustic features of 50 kHz vocalizations by nicotine and phencyclidine in rats. Behavioural Pharmacology, 30(5) 446-451

Flores, R.J., Uribe, K., Swalve, N., & O'Dell, L.E. (2019) Sex differences in nicotine intravenous self-administration: A meta-analytic review. Physiology and Behavior, 203(1), 42-50

Swalve, N. & DeFoster, R. (2016) Framing the danger of designer drugs: mass media, bath salts and the “Miami Zombie Attack.” Contemporary Drug Problems 43(2) 103-21