Brandon Oberlin, PhD

My research interests span the range of addiction development: risk factors; maintenance and progression; and, recovery and relapse prevention. Currently, the focus in my lab is on unhealthy decision-making, behavioral traits linked to addiction/alcoholism disorders and related brain activation. We use neuroimaging (fMRI) to better understand how the brain makes addiction decisions, and what individual characteristics relate to impulsivity and predict addiction risk.  Collaborations with other IU School of Medicine and IUPUI researchers target risk factors, brain dopamine systems, the use of controlled alcohol administration and behavioral sensation seeking. Our recent work in the area of recovery and relapse prevention targets decision-making by invoking the future.  My hope is that these approaches will eventually enable better outcomes for addiction treatment.

1. Shen YI, Nelson AJ, Oberlin BG (2022) Virtual reality intervention effects on future self-continuity and delayed reward preference in substance use disorder recovery: pilot study results. Discover Mental Health 2(19).  PMCID: PMC9477176.
2. Halcomb ME, Dzemidzic M, Shen YI, Lin Z, Butcher TJ, Yoder KK, Oberlin BG (2022) Delay discounting and alcohol consumption correlate with dorsal anterior insula activation during choice in non-treatment-seeking heavy drinkers.  Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 46(8).  PMCID: PMC9427725.
3. Butcher TJ, Dzemidzic M, Harezlak J, Hulvershorn LA, Oberlin BG (2021) Brain responses during delay discounting in youth at high-risk for substance use disorders. NeuroImage: Clinical 32:102772.  PMCID: PMC8414537.
4. Oberlin BG, Carron CR, Ramer NE, Plawecki MH, O’Connor SJ, Kareken DA (2021) Intoxication effects on impulsive alcohol choice in heavy drinkers; correlation with sensation seeking and differential effects by commodity. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 45(1).  PMCID: PMC7855750.
5. Amico E, Dzemidzic M, Oberlin B, Carron C, Harezlak J, Goni J, Kareken D (2020) The disengaging brain: Dynamic transitions from cognitive engagement and alcoholism risk. NeuroImage 209:116515.  PMCID: PMC8496455.
6. Oberlin BG, Shen YI, Kareken DA (2020) Alcohol use disorder interventions targeting brain sites for both conditioned reward and delayed gratification. Neurotherapeutics 17(1):70-86. PMCID: PMC7007465.
7. Oberlin BG, Ramer NE, Bates SM, Shen YI, Myslinski JS, Kareken DA, Cyders MA (2020) Quantifying Behavioral Sensation Seeking with the Aroma Choice Task. Assessment 27(5): 873-886.  PMCID: PMC7021169.
8. Kudela MA, Dzemidzic M, Oberlin BG, Goni J, Kareken DA, Harezlak J (2019) Semiparametric estimation of task-based dynamic functional connectivity on the population level. Frontiers in Neuroscience PMCID: PMC6598619.
9. Oberlin BG, Džemidžic M, Eiler II WJA, Carron CR, Soeurt CM, Plawecki MH, Grahame NJ, O’Connor SJ, Kareken DA (2018) Pairing neutral cues with alcohol intoxication: new findings in executive and attention networks. Psychopharmacology 235(9): 2725-2737.  PMCID: PMC6119082.
10. Eiler II WJA, Džemidžic M, Soeurt CM, Carron CR, Oberlin BG, Considine RV, Harezlak J, Kareken DA (2018) Family history of alcoholism and the human brain response to oral sucrose. NeuroImage: Clinical 17: 1036-1046. PMCID: PMC5767843.
11. Oberlin BG, Džemidžic M, Harezlak J, Kudela MA, Tran SM, Soeurt CM, Yoder KK, Kareken DA (2016) Corticostriatal and dopaminergic response to beer flavor with both fMRI and [¹¹C]raclopride PET. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 40(9): 1865-73.  PMCID: PMC5008996.