Professional Biography Dr. McKittrick is neuroscientist who teaches courses in physiology, systems neurobiology, endocrinology, and human sexuality and reproduction. She received her B.S. in Biology from Davidson College in 1988 and her Ph.D. from Rockefeller University in 1996, with with qualifications in Neuroscience, Biochemistry and Gene Expression, and Cell Biology. Her graduate research focused on the effects of chronic social stress on the brain and body, using a rat model in which the males formed a dominance hierarchy and the subordinate animals showed signs of being severely stressed. From 1996 to 2001, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at the Newark campus of Rutgers University, where she investigated the neurochemical changes induced by stress and various drugs of abuse in awake, behaving animals and also lectured in courses on Neuropharmacology and “Sex, Stress and Steroids”. She also team-teaches a topics course in Biology, Sociology, and Women's Studies entitled "Critical Issues in Reproduction."

Research Interests I am interested in exploring how various central neurotransmitter systems are affected by pharmacological and environmental manipulations, and how these changes, in turn, are related to behavior. My research has focused on the biological consequences of stress and the neurochemical effects of drug of abuse. Recent theories have emerged which suggest that both stress and drugs of abuse activate certain common pathways within the brain, while chronic exposure to either stimulus can lead to long-lasting changes in the responsiveness of these pathways. My laboratory examines the effects of stress and drugs of abuse on neurotransmitter release in these pathways and attempts to correlate the neurochemical changes with observable behaviors. Investigation of neurochemical changes in response to these stimuli may provide clues about the neural circuitry underlying the behaviors and physiological states associated with drug addiction and stress-related mental illnesses.

Student Research Projects

• Effects of Aspartame on Biogenic Amine Levels and Behavior in Rats
• The Correlation between Learning and Memory and Nitric Oxide/Superoxide Dismutase Levels in Hippocampus of Alzheimer’s Disease Rat Models
• Stress-Induced Catecholamine Release in Rat Nucleus Accumbens
• Voluntary Control of an Involuntary System: A Biofeedback Study Comparing Athletes and Nonathletes
• Norepinephrine/dopamine Interactions in the Prefrontal Cortex
• The Effects of Predator Odor on Behavior and Neurotransmitter Release in Orbitofrontal Cortex
• Neuroprotective Effects of Crocetin Preconditioning in a Hemi-Parkinsonian Rat Model

On the personal side...

Much of Dr. McKittrick's personal life revolves around her children: Andrew, who was born in 2001 and Lulu, born in 2005, and recently adopted from China. She enjoys kayaking, hiking, bicycling and knitting in her spare time. She also likes to cook and is developing a course on the biochemistry of food and cooking.

Selected Publications

McKittrick CR and Abercrombie ED (2007). Catecholamine mapping in nucleus accumbens: differences in basal and amphetamine-stimulated efflux of norepinephrine and dopamine in shell and core. Journal of Neurochemistry 100:1247-1256.

Blanchard DC, McKittrick CR, Hardy MP and Blanchard RJ (2002). Effects of social stress on hormones, brain and behavior. In Hormones, Brain and Behavior, Pfaff D, Arnold A, Etgen A, Farbach S, Moss R and Rubin R, Eds. Academic Press: San Diego, CA, pp. 735-772.

Hardy, MP, Sottas CM, Ge R, McKittrick CR, Tamashiro KL, McEwen BS, Haider SG, Markham CM, Blanchard RJ, Blanchard DC and Sakai RR (2002). Trends of reproductive hormones in male rats during psychosocial stress: role of glucocorticoid metabolism in behavioral dominance. Biology of Reproduction 67: 1750-1755.

Blanchard RJ, McKittrick CR and Blanchard DC (2001). Animal models of social stress: effects on behavior and brain neurochemical systems. Physiology & Behavior 73:261-271

McKittrick CR, Magariños AM, Blanchard DC, Blanchard RJ, McEwen BS, and Sakai RR (2000). Chronic social stress reduces dendritic arbors in CA3 of hippocampus and decreases binding to 5HT transporter sites. Synapse 36:85-94.

Reagan LP, McKittrick CR and McEwen BS (1999) Corticosterone and phenytoin reduce neuronal nitric oxide synthase mRNA expression in rat hippocampus. Neuroscience 91:211-219.