Abouts

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles ALGALLAL EH, LAPLANTE I, CASALE D, NAJAFIPASHAKI S, POMERLEAU A, PAQUETTE T, SAMAHA AN. 2025. Activation of Infralimbic cortex neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens shell suppresses discriminative stimulus-triggered relapse to cocaine seeking in rats. BioRxiv. LECOCQ MR, MAINVILLE-BERTHIAUME A, LAPLANTE I, SAMAHA AN. 2025. Activating Group II Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors in the Basolateral Amygdala Inhibits Increases in Reward Seeking Triggered by Discriminative Stimuli in Rats. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Photos

Fun Outside of the Lab April, 2025: Sugar shack October 23, 2016: Tour Mont-Royal Brébeuf race December, 2015 October 30, 2015: Halloween party October 4, 2015: The race for life August 15, 2015: The Color Run Conferences, Recognition and Awards September 19, 2018 : Ellie-Anna’s thesis defense June 1, 2018 : Florence’s thesis defense May 17, 2018: Gabriel L. Plaa day October, 2015: étudiants-chercheurs étoile’ award The laboratory is featured in the newspaper, Le forum

Contact Us

Department of Pharmacology and Physiology – University of Montréal Pavillon Paul. G Desmarais 2900 Édouard Montpetit, PGD 3253 Montréal, Québec H3T 1J4 Canada E-mail: anna.samaha@umontreal.ca Tel: 514 343 6111 x. 32788 Fax: 514 343 2291 Twitter

Research

Main Interests Drugs of abuse and animal models of addiction The role of the speed of drug delivery and of the intermittency of drug exposure in addiction Antipsychotic medications Interactions between antipsychotic medications and drugs of abuse Servonnet et al., 2017 Allain al., 2017 Charron, el Hage et al., 2015 El Hage et al., 2015 Bouayad-Gervias, Minogianis et al., 2014 Minogianis et al., 2013 Bédard et al., 2013 Bédard et al.

Dr Samaha

Training PhD in Psychology (2004) University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA M.A. in Psychology (2001) University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA B.A. in Psychology (1998) Concordia University , Montréal, Canada Post-Doctoral Fellowships National Institute of Health and Medical Research (2004-05) Paris, France Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (2005-08) Toronto, Canada Affiliations Central Nervous System Research Group (U de M) Canadian Association for Neuroscience Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology Society for Neuroscience

The Lab

Who are we? We are a behavioural neuropharmacology laboratory located in the department of Pharmacology and Physiology of the Université de Montréal. What is our mission ? Our overall objective is to characterise the neurobiological bases of learning, motivation and reward. Within this context, we aim to better understand drug addiction and its brain mechanisms. Why is our work important ? We are working to understand what happens in the brain when we encounter rewards such as water and food, and especially drugs of abuse.

Laboratory Members

Isabel Laplante - Research Associate Mandy LeCocq – Postdoc Hajer Algallal – PhD Amelie Mainville-Berthiaume – PhD Coralie Godbout – PhD Domiziana Casale – Research Associate Anne-Noël's son - Visiting Student Anne-Noël's 2nd son - Visiting Student Alumni Aissatou Ndiaye - PhD Shaghayegh Najafipashaki – Master's Student Mike Robinson - Research Associate Sema Abushamleh - Undergraduate Intern Shaun Khoo - Postdoc Laurence Theroux - Master's Student Caroline Garceau - Masters Student