Joe Troisi

Joseph Troisi II

Professor

1-603-641-7198

jtroisi@anselm.edu

Education

1990-1992 - Post-Doctoral Fellow Behavioral Pharmacology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
1990 - Ph.D., Experimental Psychology, Temple University
1984 - B.A., Psychology, Temple University

Professor Troisi’s behavioral neuroscience research utilizes drug discrimination training in rats to investigate extinction of motivated voluntary behavior (and the interaction with involuntary behavior) under common drugs and drugs of abuse. The goal is to model how other internal states (stress, hunger, thirst, emotions, craving and other drug effects) play roles in relapse behavior and its inhibition (i.e., treatment). His work investigates conditioning with nicotine (and alcohol), and how environmental stimuli influence internal stimulus effects during extinction and relapse-like phenomena. This translational research has implications for drug abuse and drug abuse treatment. Professor Troisi received a second NIH (NH-INBRE) grant to study sex differences in drug discrimination with nicotine. 

Prior to arriving at Saint Anselm College, Professor Troisi was a Post-Doctoral research fellow in human behavioral pharmacology/substance abuse at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit (BPRU). At Hopkins, he worked with recreational drug abusers to investigate human drug discrimination and drug abuse-liability- assessment of novel sedative/hypnotic drugs. Professor Troisi taught previously as an instructor during graduate school at Temple University. His research then focused on endogenous opioid mediation and Pavlovian conditioning factors of stress induced analgesia in Learned Helplessness (a model of human depression). His general research interests are rooted in, experimental analysis of behavior, associative learning and Pavlovian/operant interaction. 

Professor Troisi has collaborated with colleagues at Kings College London England, Exeter University UK, University of Kentucky, Northeastern University Center for Drug Discovery, and also established connections for potential projects with colleagues at TUFTS University Veterinary School. He serves as an expertise reviewer for several peer journals in animal learning and behavioral pharmacology. Professor Troisi states, “Research and teaching are symbiotically interrelated”