Janet Neisewander spends a lot of her time with rodents and cocaine.
As strange as that may sound, the research the Arizona State University professor is doing with those two things may someday help people struggling with addiction.
Neisewander, who earned her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Kentucky in 1988, became interested in how the brain is connected to behavior early on in her academic career.
As a freshman at Rockford College in Rockford, Ill. Neisewander became passionate about the human brain.
“I was fascinated by the way the brain is involved in behavior and how brain dysfunctions result in dysfunctional behavior,” she said.
As she was finishing her bachelor’s degree in biology and psychology, Neisewander looked for graduate programs that would allow her to continue her studies.
“I wanted a good graduate training program