Vadim Bolshakov is a Russia-born American neuroscientist, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.[1] He has been Director of the Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory at McLean Hospital since 1999. He received The Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fund award in 2001[2][3] and NARSAD Distinguished Investigator award in 2013.[4]
Bolshakov is an associate editor of Frontiers in Neural Circuits, published by Frontiers,[5] an associate editor of Neurochemistry International, published by Elsevier, and a consulting editor of Amino Acids, published by Springer.[6] He presently serves on the Scientific Council of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.[7]
In his work, he focuses on understanding the cellular and neural network-level mechanisms of learned and innate behaviors with an emphasis on studies of fear mechanisms in the brain. He demonstrated that negatively-charged memories, resulting in uncontrollable fear and anxiety, are associated with long-term functional changes at synaptic contacts in the amygdala.[8][9][10][11] He also demonstrated that these aversive memories, as well as synaptic modifications associated with them, can be controlled by the expression of specific genes in brain regions responsible for emotional states.[12][13] Overall, his findings provide evidence that synaptic plasticity in specific projections within behavior-controlling neural circuits may serve as a cellular mechanism of memory formation and retention.[14]
