= Christie D. Fowler
{c}
Christie D. Fowler is a <neuroscientist> whose experimental work includes the role of <nicotinic acetylcholine receptors> in controlling <nicotine> intake. In a 2011 study, mice lacking the $\alpha5$ receptor subunit consumed more <nicotine>; restoring the subunit in the <medial habenula> corrected this phenotype. Reducing the subunit locally in rats produced a corresponding change in intake.<Habenular α5 nicotinic receptor subunit signalling controls nicotine intake by Christie D. Fowler and others>[Abstract and Figures 1–3; author contributions identify Fowler's roles in experimental design, experiments, analysis and writing.]{ref}
The combination of <gene knockout> and localized <genetic rescue> provides an illuminating experimental comparison: deleting a component throughout an animal shows that it matters, while restoring it in one brain region helps locate a sufficient site of action for the measured phenotype. The rat experiments further distinguished <nicotine>'s rewarding effects from the inhibitory effects of higher doses. Loss of the latter signal helped explain increased intake; the result cannot simply be summarized as an increase in reward at every dose.<Habenular α5 nicotinic receptor subunit signalling controls nicotine intake by Christie D. Fowler and others>[Figures 2–3: rescue and comparison of reward-enhancing versus reward-inhibiting effects.]{ref}
\Image[https://faculty.uci.edu/get_image?facultyId=6055]
{title=<Christie D. Fowler>}
{description=Portrait labelled on the https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6055[official University of California, Irvine faculty profile].}
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