Associate Professor of Neuroscience

A large amount of knowledge has accumulated over the past decades implicating the central dopaminergic system in reward-based reinforcement learning, decision making, motivation and locomotion, as well as its dysfunction in the etiology of a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders, such as drug addiction, schizophrenia and Parkinson disease. However, the exact neural mechanisms regulating the functional output of this system are not fully understood and treatments for the disorders described above remain far from ideal. Thus, the overall goal of Dr. Morikawa's research is to advance our understanding of the physiology and pathophysiology of the central dopaminergic system at the cellular, synaptic and local circuit levels. To achieve this goal, his lab employs in vitro brain slice electrophysiology, confocal fluorescence imaging and UV photolysis of caged compounds, combined with behavioral analysis and pharmacological manipulations of specific brain areas.

After obtaining an M.D. from Kyoto University in Japan and completing his clinical training in anesthesiology, Dr. Morikawa became interested in basic research. His work focused on morphine and other opiates as analgesic drugs, more specifically on the cellular mechanism of tolerance after prolonged treatment with opiates. After obtaining a Ph.D. in 1999, Dr. Morikawa joined John Williams’ lab at the Vollum Institute in Portland, Oregon, with a naive intention to define the brain circuit involved in the euphoric action of drugs of abuse.

Dr. Morikawa joined the faculty at UT Austin in 2002. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2008.