Six@Six Lecture - Lessons from the Lab

About this event

Lessons from the Lab: The Neuroscience of Prenatal Opioid Exposure

Join the Scripps Howard Center for our annual Six@Six Lecture series. These lectures are led by NKU faculty as they get to present their research to the community. For November, we have Brittany Smith from the NKU Department of Psychology talking about the effects that opioid usage by expectant mothers can have on the developing baby.

There will be a short networking opportunity with snacks and drinks at 6:00 pm, followed by the lecture starting promptly at 6:30 pm.

Lecture Summary:

The opioid epidemic has increased the prevalence of opioid use during pregnancy. This presentation will use a neuroscience perspective to highlight how we are trying to understand the impact this may have on the developing baby.

Explore this journey, how this exposure can be modelled in laboratory animals using a clinical perspective, and what these studies have informed us about the impact on the brain. See where our work is headed to better understand the consequences of the opioid epidemic and how we are trying to develop safe interventions to improve outcomes and reduce stigma.

Speaker Bio:

Brittany Smith joined the Department of Psychological Science in 2022. She was previously at the University of Cincinnati for 11 years, where she completed her Ph.D. in neuroscience in 2016 and postdoctoral fellowship from 2016-2022. She teaches Biopsychology, Biopsychology Lab, and Research Methods. Her interests include behavioral neuroscience, neuroimmunology, molecular neurobiology, and translational research. Her research program is focused on understanding how in utero substance exposure shapes executive function later in life.