Dr. Friedman joins UTEP after completing his post-doctoral training and working as a research scientist at MIT for 10 years. Dr. Friedman uniquely combines computation and the development of tools for big data analysis with behavioral physiology to study computation principles and underlying psychiatric and neurological disorders. Dr. Friedman earned his doctoral degree in brain physiology (summa cum laude) from Bar-llan University (BIU) in Israel. While at BIU, he developed deep brain stimulation methods to treat depression and addiction in rodent models. Dr. Friedman demonstrated the first evidence about the physiological role of the striosomal compartment of the striatum in decision-making, and how the striosomal activity and decision-making are affected by chronic stress, aging, and Huntington disorder. His work resulted in solving a 42-year old mystery that led him to publish three major publications in the Cell journal during his time as a post-doctoral researcher. Dr. Friedman continually works on the development of novel computational, electrophysiological, and optical methods to record and analyze neuronal ensembles. At MIT, he facilitated hands-on research engagement workshops for more than 50 undergraduate and graduate students where they were active participants and contributors while learning state-of-the-art techniques and computational methods. He is excited to undertake laboratory classes at UTEP where students can acquire the latest computational methods, physiological recording methods, and behavior physiology via active participation in the research. Dr. Friedman’s lab will uniquely combine the development of computational methods and physiological recording methods with the development of natural behavior assets to study disorders such as PTSD, addiction, chronic stress, and age-related disorders. Dr. Friedman is a member of the Society for Neuroscience and the Society of Biological Psychiatry. When he is not at work, he enjoys biking, hiking, and spending time with his children at the park. He also likes to get involved with the community by volunteering with organizations that serve elderly populations.

• Ph D in Brain Physiology, Bar-Ilan University (2010)

• Discovering the Lost Reward: Critical Locations for Endocannabinoid Modulation of the Cortico--Striatal Loop That Are Implicated in Major Depression International Journal of Molecular Sciences 22 4 (2021), Sari Goldstein Ferber, Aron Weller, Gal Yadid, Alexander Friedman.
• A role for α-Synuclein in axon growth and its implications in corticostriatal glutamatergic plasticity in Parkinson’s disease Molecular neurodegeneration/BioMed Central 15 (2020), Meir Schechter, Jessica Grigoletto, Suaad Abd-Elhadi, Hava Glickstein, Alexander Friedman, Geidy E. Serrano, Thomas G. Beach, Ronit Sharon.
• Spatiotemporal Up-Regulation of Mu Opioid Receptor 1 in Striatum of Mouse Model of Huntington’s Disease Differentially Affecting Caudal and Striosomal Regions Frontiers in Neuroanatomy 14 (2020), Ryoma Morigaki, Jannifer H. Lee, Tomoko Yoshida, W\"uthrich, Christian, Dan Hu, Jill R. Crittenden, Alexander Friedman, Yasuo Kubota, Ann M. Graybiel.
• Striosomes Mediate Value-Based Learning Vulnerable in Age and a Huntington’s Disease Model Cell 183 4 (2020), Alexander Friedman, Emily Hueske, Sabrina M. Drammis, Sebastian E. Arana, Erik D. Nelson, Cody W. Carter, Sebastien Delcasso, Raimundo X. Rodriguez, Hope Lutwak, Kaden S. DiMarco.
• Chronic stress alters striosome-circuit dynamics, leading to aberrant decision-making Authors Cell/Cell Press 171 5 (2017), Alexander Friedman, Daigo Homma, Bernard Bloem, Leif G. Gibb, Ken-ichi Amemori, Dan Hu, Sebastien Delcasso, Timothy F. Truong, Joyce Yang, Adam S. Hood, Katrina A. Mikofalvy, Dirk W. Beck, Norah Nguyen, Erik D. Nelson, Sebastian E. Toro Arana, Ruth H. Vorder Bruegge, Ki A. Goosens, Ann M. Graybiel.
• PARP-1 is required for retrieval of cocaine-associated memory by binding to the promoter of a novel gene encoding a putative transposase inhibitor Molecular psychiatry/Nature Publishing Group 22 4 (2017), E Lax, Alexander Friedman, R Massart, R Barnea, L Abraham, D Cheishvili, M Zada, H Ahdoot, T Bareli, G Warhaftig, L Visochek, M Suderman, M Cohen-Armon, M Szyf, G Yadid.

• An innovative system for assessing decision-making in an array of mental health disorders, psychological and sex differences (2021), Volume Cambridge, MA, Alexander Friedman.
• An innovative system for assessing decision-making in an array of mental health disorders, psychological and sex differences (2021), Volume Cambridge, MA, Alexander Friedman.
• Computational model of striosomal circuit in normal and disordered decision-making (2021), Volume Cambridge, MA, Alexander Friedman.
• Striosomal Compartment of Striatum Encode Expected Cost-Benefit Value and Selectively Effected by Stress, Aging and Huntington Disorder, (2021), Volume Los Angeles, CA, Alexander Friedman.
• Striosomal Compartment of Striatum Encode Expected Cost-Benefit Value and Selectively Effected by Stress, Aging and Huntington Disorder (2020), Volume Augusata, Alexander Friedman.
• Striosomal Compartment of Striatum Encode Expected Cost-Benefit Value and Selectively Effected by Stress, Aging and Huntington Disorder, (2020), Volume El Paso, Alexander Friedman.
• Striosomal Compartment of Striatum Encode Expected Cost-Benefit Value and Selectively Effected by Stress, Aging and Huntington Disorder (2020), Volume Philadelphia, Alexander Friedman.
• Striosomal Compartment of Striatum Encode Expected Cost-Benefit Value and Selectively Effected by Stress, Aging and Huntington Disorder, (2019), Volume Jacksonville, Alexander Friedman.
• Discover Computational Principles of Multi-Circuit Cortico-Striatal Network Underlying Decision-Making via Development of High Density Behavioral (2019), Volume USC Viterbi School of Biomedical Engineering, Alexander Friedman.
• Chronic Stress Alters Striosome-Circuit Dynamics, Leading to Aberrant Decision-Making. (2018), Volume Washington DC., Alexander Friedman.
• Chronic Stress Alters Striosome-Circuit Dynamics, Leading to Aberrant Decision-Making. (2018), Alexander Friedman.
• The Role of the Cortico-Striosomal Circuit in Regulation of Conflict Decision-Making and the Critical Link Between its Abnormality and Stress-Related Disorde (2018), Volume Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Alexander Friedman.
• Novel computational approaches for signal extraction from striatal multi-color photometry recordings and evaluating high-throughput approach avoidance learning applied to Huntington’s disease mouse model (2018), Volume Cambridge, Alexander Friedman.
• The Role of the Cortico-Striosomal Circuit in Regulation of Conflict Decision-Making and the Critical Link Between its Abnormality and Stress-Related Disorder (2018), Volume Columbia Theory Center, Alexander Friedman.
• Novel computational approaches for signal extraction from striatal multi-color photometry recordings and evaluating high-throughput approach-avoidance learning applied to Huntington’s disease mouse model, (2018), Volume San Diego, Alexander Friedman.
• Cortico-Striosomal Circuit is Critical for Regulation of Normal and Aberrant Decision-Making. (2018), Volume Yale, Alexander Friedman.
• The Cortico-Striosomal Circuit: a regulator of conflict decision-making. (2017), Volume Hebrew University, Alexander Friedman.
• A shift in the excitation-inhibition balance of a cortico-striosomal circuit underlies (2017), Volume Washington, DC, Alexander Friedman.

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