Profilo e principali pubblicazioni

Professore ordinario all’Università “La Sapienza” di Roma, dove è responsabile del Laboratorio di Genetica del Comportamento nel Dipartimento di Psicologia. L’attività di ricerca è volta allo studio dei sistemi neurali implicati nell’apprendimento e memoria, nell’emozione e nella motivazione con particolare riferimento alla neurotrasmissione ed ai meccanismi di neuroplasticità. E’ preside della prima Facoltà di Psicologia della “Sapienza”, dove insegna Psicobiologia della Motivazione e dell’Apprendimento e Metodi in Neuroscienze.

Nato a Messina il 7 novembre 1946.

Formazione:

Laurea in Psicologia Sperimentale presso l’ Università di Roma "La Sapienza", 1975.

Ph.D. in Neuroscienze (Doctorat d'Etat ès Sciences), Università Louis Pasteur, Strasbourgo, Francia, 1984.

Situazione professionale:

Ricercatore (dal 1988 Primo Ricercatore) presso l'Istituto di Psicobiologia e Psicofarmacologia del C.N.R., 1977-1991.

Professore ordinario di Psicobiologia presso la Facoltà di Psicologia dell' Università di Roma, "La Sapienza", 1991 ad oggi.

Responsabile del Laboratorio di Neurobiologia del Comportamento presso la Fondazione Santa Lucia, IRCCS, Roma, 2001 ad oggi.

Direttore del Dipartimento di Psicologia dell’ dell' Università di Roma, "La Sapienza", 1995-2003.

Preside della prima Facoltà di Psicologia, Università “La Sapienza” di Roma, 2003 ad oggi.

Presidente della Conferenza dei Presidi delle Facoltà di Psicologia. 2006-2008

Principali campi di ricerca:

Genetica del Comportamento, Neurochimica del Comportamento, Psicofarmacologia.

Pubblicazioni:

E’ autore di oltre 130 articoli su riviste internazionali.

Elenco di alcuni articoli rappresentativi:

Puglisi-Allegra,S. and Mandel,P. Effects of sodium-n-dipropylacetate, muscimol hydrobromide and (R,S)nipecotic acid amide on isolation-induced aggressive behavior in mice, Psychopharmacology, 70, 287-290, 1980.

Puglisi-Allegra,S, Castellano,C.,Filibeck,U., Oliverio,A. Melchiorri,P. Behavioral data on dermorphins in mice, European Journal of Pharmacology, 82, 223-227, 1982.

Oliverio,A., Castellano,C. and Puglisi-Allegra,S. Psychopharmacogenetics of opioids, Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, 4, 350-352, 1983.

Cabib, S., Puglisi-Allegra, S. and Oliverio, A. Chronic stress enhances apomorphine-induced stereotyped behavior in mice: involvement of endogenous opioids, Brain Research, 298, 138-140, 1984.

Oliverio,A., Castellano,C. and Puglisi-Allegra,S. Psychobiology of opioids, International Review of Neurobiology, 25, 277-337,1984.

Puglisi-Allegra, S. and Cabib, S. The effect of age on two kinds of aggresisve behavior in inbred strains of mice. Developmental Psychobiology, 18(6): 477-482, 1985.

Puglisi-Allegra, S., Cabib, S. and Oliverio, A. Chronic stress reduces the analgesic but not the stimulant effect of morphine in mice. Brain Research, 380: 357-358, 1986

Mele, A., Cabib, S., Oliverio, A., Melchiorri, P., and Puglisi-Allegra, S. Effects of corticotropin releasing factor and sauvagine on social behavior of isolated mice. Peptides, 8(5): 935-938, 1987.

Cabib, S., Kempf, E., Schleef, C., Oliverio, A. and Puglisi-Allegra, S. Effects of immobilization stress on dopamine and its metabolites in different brain areas of the mouse: role of genotype and stress duration. Brain Research, 441: 153-160, 1988.

Cabib, S. and Puglisi-Allegra, S. Genotype-dependent modulation of LY 171555-induced defensive behaviour in the mouse. Psychopharmacology 97:166-168, 1989.

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Puglisi-Allegra, S., Kempf, E. and Cabib, S. Role of genotype in the adaptation of the brain dopamine system to stress. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 14: 523-528, 1990.

Puglisi-Allegra, S., Imperato, A., Angelucci, L. and Cabib, S. Acute stress induce time-dependent responses in dopamine mesolimbic system. Brain Research 554: 217-222, 1991.

Maestripieri, D., Badiani, A. and Puglisi-Allegra, S. Prepartal chronic stress increases anxiety and decreases aggression in lactating female mice. Behavioral Neuroscience 105: 663-668, 1991.

Imperato, A., Angelucci, L., Casolini, P., Zocchi, A. and Puglisi-Allegra S. Repeted stressful xperiences differently affect limbic dopamine release during and following stress. Brain Research, 577: 194-199, 1992.

Imperato, A., Mele, A., Scrocco, M.G. and Puglisi-Allegra, S. Chronic cocaine alters the extracellular concentrations of striatal dopamine: neurochemical basis for addiction. European Journal of Pharmacology, 212: 299-300, 1992.

Imperato A, Cabib S. and Puglisi-Allegra S. Repeated stressful experiences differently affect the time-dependent responses of the mesolimbic dopamine system to stress. Brain Reserach, 601: 333-336, 1993

Castellano, C. Cestari, V., Cabib, S.,and Puglisi-Allegra, S. The effects of morphine on memory consolidation in mice involve both D1 and D2 Dopamine receptors. Behavioral and Neural Biology, 61: 156-161, 1994.

Cabib, S. and Puglisi-Allegra, S. Opposite responses of mesolimbic dopamine system to controllable and incontrollable aversive experiences. The Journal of Neuroscience, 14: 3333-3340, 1994.

Cabib, S., D'Amato F.R., Neveu P, Deleplanque B., Le Moal, M. and Puglisi-Allegra, S. Paw preference and brain dopamine asymmetries. Neuroscience, 64: 427-432 1995.

Cabib, S., and Puglisi-Allegra, S. Different effects of repeated stressful experiences on mesocortical and mesolimbic dopamine metabolism Neuroscience, 73:375-380, 1996.

Cabib, S., Oliverio, A., Ventura, R., Lucchese, F. and Puglisi-Allegra, S. Brain dopamine receptor plasticity: testing a diathesis-stress hypothesis in an animal model. Psychopharmacology, 132: 153-160, 1997.

Zocchi, A., Orsini, C., Cabib, S. and Puglisi-Allegra, S. Parallel strain-dependent effect of amphetamine on locomotor activity and dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens: an in vivo study in mice. Neuroscience, 82 (2): 521-528, 1998.

Cabib, S., Giardino, L., Calzà, L., Zanni, M., Mele, A. and Puglisi-Allegra, S. Stress promotes major changes in dopamine receptor densities within the mesoaccumbens and nigrostriatal systems. Neuroscience, 84 (1): 193-200, 1998.

Cabib S. and Puglisi-Allegra S. Of genes, environment and destiny. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22(3): 519-520, 1999.

Puglisi-Allegra S., Cabib S., Pascucci T., Ventura R., Cali F., Romano V. Dramatic brain aminergic deficits in a genetic mouse model of phenyketonuria Neuroreport, 11 1361-1364, 2000.

Ventura R, Cabib S, and Puglisi-Allegra S. Opposite genotype-dependent mesocorticolimbic dopamine response to stress. Neuroscience. 104(3):627-3, 2001.

Cabib S, Ventura R, and Puglisi-Allegra S. (2002)

Opposite imbalances between mesocortical and mesoaccumbens dopamine responses to stress by the same genotype depending on living conditions.

Behav Brain Res, 129(1-2):179-185, 2002.

Ventura R, Cabib S, and Puglisi-Allegra S. Genetic susceptibility of mesocortical dopamine to stress determines liability to inhibition of mesoaccumbens dopamine and to behavioral 'despair' in a mouse model of depression. Neuroscience, 115(4):999-1007, 2002.

Ventura R, Cabib S, Alcaro A, Orsini C, and Puglisi-Allegra S. Norepinephrine in the prefrontal cortex is critical for amphetamine-induced reward and mesoaccumbens dopamine release. The Journal of Neuroscience, 23: 1879-1885, 2003.

Cabib S, Pascucci T, Ventura, R, Romano V and Puglisi-Allegra S.

The behavioral profile of severe mental retardation in a genetic mouse model of phenylketonuria. Behavior Genetics, 33(3): 301-310, 2003.

Ventura R, Alcaro A, Cabib S, Conversi D, Mandolesi L. Puglisi-Allegra S.

Dopamine in the medial prefrontal cortex controls genotype-dependent effects of amphetamine on mesoaccumbens dopamine release and locomotion. Neuropsychopharmacology, 29(1): 72-80, 2004.

Ventura R, Alcaro A, Mandolesi L and Puglisi-Allegra S.

In vivo evidence that genetic background controls impulse-dependent dopamine release induced by amphetamine in the nucleus accumbens. Journal of Neurochemistry, 89: 494-502.., 2004.

Ventura R, Pascucci T, Catania MV, Musumeci SA, Puglisi-Allegra S.

Object recognition impairment in Fmr1 knockout mice is reversed by amphetamine: involvement of dopamine in the medial prefrontal cortex. Behavioural Pharmacology, 15: 433-442, 2004.

Ventura, R, Puglisi-Allegra, S. Environment makes amphetamine-induced dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens totally impulse-dependent. Synapse, 58: 211-214, 2005.

Ventura R., Alcaro A., Puglisi-Allegra S. Prefrontal Cortical Norepinephrine Release Is Critical for Morphine-induced Reward, Reinstatement and Dopamine Release in the Nucleus Accumbens. Cerebral Cortex, 15: 1877-1886, 2005.

Pascucci T, Ventura R, Latagliata EC, Cabib S, Puglisi-Allegra S. (2007) The medial prefrontal cortex determines the accumbens dopamine response to stress through the opposing influences of norepinephrine and dopamine. Cerebral Cortex. 17(12): 2796-2804.

Ventura R, Morrone C, Puglisi-Allegra S. (2007) Prefrontal/accumbal catecholamine system determines motivational salience attribution to both reward- and aversion-related stimuli. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 104(12):5181-6.

Carola V, Frazzetto G, Pascucci T, Audero E, Puglisi-Allegra S, Cabib S, Lesch KP, Gross C. (2007) Identifying Molecular Substrates in a Mouse Model of the Serotonin Transporter x Environment Risk Factor for Anxiety and Depression.

Biological Psychiatry. 2007 Oct 17; [Epub ahead of print]

Sacco R, Militerni R, Frolli A, Bravaccio C, Gritti A, Elia M, Curatolo P, Manzi B, Trillo S, Lenti C, Saccani M, Schneider C, Melmed R, Reichelt KL, Pascucci T, Puglisi-Allegra S, Persico AM. (2007) Clinical, morphological, and biochemical correlates of head circumference in autism. Biological Psychiatry. 62(9):1038-47.

Ventura R, Latagliata EC, Morrone C, La Mela I, Puglisi-Allegra S. (2008) Prefrontal Norepinephrine Determines Attribution of ‘‘High’’ Motivational Saliente. PLoS ONE, 3(8): e3044.