Department of Psychiatry Faculty

Christopher Pittenger, MD, PhD Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Director, Yale OCD Research Clinic 34 Park Street New Haven, CT 06519 Tel: 203-974-7675 Fax: 203-974-7662 Email: Christopher.pittenger@yale.edu

Education

B.S. and M.S., 1994, Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, Yale University
Ph.D., 2002, Neurobiology and Behavior, Columbia University
M.D., 2003, Columbia University
Adult Psychiatry Residency and Neuroscience Research Training Program, 2007, Yale University School of Medicine

Research Interest

Many of our everyday actions have an automatic character – they are executed in the same way, with little flexibility but also with little cost to scarce attentional resources. Optimal navigation in a world characterized both by abiding regularities and by unpredictable change requires both an ability to automate the routine and a flexible capacity to switch the autopilot off when unpredicted contingencies arise.

Dr. Pittenger’s laboratory seeks to understand these phenomena at a molecular, cellular, and network level through the production and analysis of genetically modified mice. Our efforts are focused on the role of the dorsal striatum (caudate-putamen) in several forms of habit-like learning, which we are able disrupt through perturbation of transcriptional regulation specifically in the dorsal striatum. Current studies examine the sometimes competitive interactions between striatum-dependent habit-like learning and hippocampus-dependent spatial learning during navigation, and on the role of specific populations of interneurons in striatal information processing.

Dr. Pittenger is also the Director of the Yale OCD Research Clinic, where his work focuses on better understanding the abnormalities of basal ganglia function that underlie the disorder and on the development of novel psychopharmacological treatments.

Laboratory Personnel

Anni S. Lee, BA, Research Assistant
Stacey Wilber, BS, Research Assistant

Achievements and Honors

• Pool Prize for Medical writing, 1994
• Dean's Day Award for Medical Research, 2000 & 2002
• William H. Bean Award for Medical History and Humanities, American Osler Society, 2001
• Ph.D. with distinction, Columbia University, 2002
• NIMH Outstanding Resident Award, 2005
• The Seymour L. Lustman Award for Psychiatric Research, Yale University Department of Psychiatry, 2006 & 2007
• Memorial Travel Fellowship, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2006
• Chief Resident, Neuroscience Research Training Program, Yale University Department of Psychiatry
• MacNeil Fellowship, Yale University, 2005-2007
• The Laughlin Fellowship, American College of Psychiatrists, 2007
• APA/Wyeth MD/Ph.D. Research Fellowship, 2007
• Director, Yale OCD Research Clinic, 2007-
• NARSAD Young investigator Award, 2007
• Laughlin Foundation Research Award, 2007
• Associate Editor, Neuroscience Letters, 2007-

Selected Publications

Kandel, E.R, and Pittenger, C. (1999). The past, the future, and the biology of memory storage. Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. B: Biol. Sci. 354:2027-2052.

Patterson, S.L., Pittenger, C., Morozov, A., Martin, K.C., Scanlin, H., Drake, C., and Kandel, E.R. (2001). Some forms of cAMP-mediated long-lasting synaptic potentiation are associated with release of BDNF and nuclear translocation of phospho-MAP kinase. Neuron 32:123-140.

Pittenger, C., Huang, Y.Y., Paletzki, R.F., Bourtchouladze, R., Scanlin, H., Vronskaya, S., and Kandel, E.R. (2002). Reversible inhibition of CREB/ATF transcription factors in region CA1 of the dorsal hippocampus disrupts hippocampus-dependent spatial memory. Neuron 34:447-462.

Pittenger, C., and Kandel, E.R. (2003). In search of general mechanisms for long-lasting plasticity: Aplysia and the hippocampus. Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. B: Biol. Sci. 358:757-763

Barco, A.,* Pittenger, C.*, and Kandel, E.R. (2003). CREB, memory enhancement, and the treatment of memory disorders: promises, pitfalls, and prospects. Expert Opin. Ther. Targets 7:101-114.

Huang, Y.Y., Pittenger, C., and Kandel, E.R. (2004). A form of long-lasting learning-related synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus induced by heterosynaptic low-frequency pairing. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101:859-864.

Coric, V., Taskiran S., Pittenger, C., Wasylink, S., Mathalon, D.H., Valentine, G., Saksa, J., Wu, Y., Gueorguieva, R., Sanacora, G., Malison, R.T., and Krystal, J.H. (2005). Riluzole augmentation in treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder: an open label trial. Biol Psych. 58:424-8.

Pittenger, C.,* Fasano, S.,* Jones, D., Dunnett, S., Kandel, E.R., and Brambilla, R. (2006). Impaired bidirectional synaptic plasticity and procedural memory formation in striatum-specific cAMP response element-binding protein-deficient mice. J. Neurosci. 26:2808-13.

Pittenger, C., Krystal, J.H., and Coric, V. (2006). Glutamate-modulating drugs as novel pharmacotherapeutic agents in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder. NeuroRx 3:69-81.

Pittenger, C., Sanacora, G., and Krystal, J.H. (2007). The NMDA receptor as a therapeutic target in major depressive disorder. CNS & Neurological Disorders: Drug Targets, 6:101-15.

Pittenger, C., Duman, R. (2008). Stress, depression, and neuroplasticity: a convergence of mechanisms. Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews 33:88-109.

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