Contact info

Dr Stephanie Fulton
CRCHUM · Technopôle Angus
2901, Rachel Street East – Room 302
Montreal, QC H1W 4A4

Tel: 1-514-890-8000, ext. 23602
Fax: 1-514-412-7648
E-mail: stephanie.fulton@umontreal.ca

Link to Fulton Lab webpage

Research keywords

Stephanie Fulton received her graduate training in Behavioural Neurobiology at Concordia University in Montreal under the mentorship of Drs Peter Shizgal and Barbara Woodside. Her PhD thesis investigated the impact neuropeptides and hormones involved in energy homeostasis, such as the adipose-derived hormone leptin, on brain reward circuitry. As a CIHR-funded postdoctoral fellow, she joined the laboratory of Dr Jeffrey Flier at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston to pursue training in energy metabolism and neuroendocrinology. There her work identified the influence of leptin on dopamine tone and function in the mesoaccumbens pathway. Dr Fulton then returned to Montreal as an NSERC postdoctoral fellow to study dopamine neurophysiology in the laboratory of Dr Louis-Eric Trudeau where she explored the regulation of striatal dopamine release by the D2 dopamine autoreceptor. In 2008, Dr Fulton became a member of the Montreal Diabetes Research Center and was appointed Assistant Professor of the Department of Nutrition and Adjunct Assistant Professor of the Department of Physiology in the Faculty of Medicine at Université de Montréal. Dr Fulton's laboratory is situated at the Technopôle Angus research site of the Centre de Recherche du CHUM.

Our laboratory studies the neural mechanisms of food-motivated behavior. Peripherally-derived metabolic signals can directly modulate mesolimbic dopamine neurons, an important component of the neural circuitry controlling motivation and reward-relevant learning. We are investigating how peripherally-derived hormones and nutrients alter dopamine and other reward-related pathways to affect food-motivated behavior and preference for foods high in fat and sugar. We are also interested in the neural adaptations that may occur in response to consumption of palatable high-energy foods and how they may contribute to over-eating and the development of obesity.

Click here for PubMed listing