Paul Soto, Associate Professor
Office: 232 Audubon Hall
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Telephone: 225-578-1477
[email protected]
Dr. Soto will be accepting students for Fall 2025.
Research Interests
My research interests are in (1) the use of laboratory animal models of psychiatric diseases and symptoms for the evaluation of potential therapeutic approaches, (2) the use of drugs and genetically engineered animals to identify the neurobiological contributors to basic and complex behavioral processes, and (3) the investigation of short- and long-term effects of exposure to psychiatric medications. Dr. Soto also collaborates with Dr. Christopher Morrison (https://www.pbrc.edu/research-and-faculty/faculty/Morrison-Christopher-PhD.aspx) at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center using behavioral economic demand assessments to measure changes in “motivation” for protein induced by changes in dietary protein and using genetically modified mice to identify the neural substrates that mediate behavioral changes in response to variation in dietary protein. Recently, Dr. Soto has begun advocating for the use of single-case experimental designs in areas outside of behavior analysis, such as behavioral neuroscience, because of the scientific and ethical benefits provided by these designs.
Representative Publications
* indicates a student author
Kim SQ, Spann RA, Khan MSH, Berthoud HR, Münzberg H, Albaugh VL, He Y, McDougal DH, Soto P, Yu S, Morrison CD. FGF21 as a mediator of adaptive changes in food intake and macronutrient preference in response to protein restriction. Neuropharmacology. 2024 Sep 1;255:110010. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2024.110010. Epub 2024 May 24. PMID: 38797244; PMCID: PMC11156534.
DiMarco GM*, Harris BN, Savonenko AV, Soto PL (2023). Acute Stressors Do Not Impair Short-term Memory or Attention in an Aged Mouse Model of Amyloidosis. Front Behav Neurosci. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1151833. PMID: 37250187; PMCID: PMC10213425.
Soto PL, Young ME, DiMarco GM*, George B*, Savonenko AV, Harris BN (2023). Longitudinal assessment of cognitive function in APP+PS1 mice. Neurobiology of Aging, 128:85-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2023.03.010
Harris BN, Roberts BR*, DiMarco GM*, Maldonado KA*, Okwunwanne Z*, Savonenko AV, Soto PL (2023). Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity and anxiety-like behavior during aging: A test of the glucocorticoid cascade hypothesis in amyloidogenic APPswe/PS1dE9 mice. General and Comparative Endocrinology, 330:114126. doi: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2022.114126. Epub 2022 Sep 16. PMID: 36122793.
Soto PL, Ramalingam L, George B, Moustaid-Moussa N. Long-term effects of adolescent exposure to olanzapine in C57BL/6 J mice and the impact of dietary fish oil supplementation. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2022 Jul 27. doi: 10.1007/s00213-022-06193-7. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35896725.
Gipson CD, Soto PL, Calipari ES, Platt DM, Salamone JD, Bevins RA. Using complex behavior to understand brain mechanisms in health and disease. J Exp Anal Behav. 2022 May;117(3):275-278. doi: 10.1002/jeab.762. Epub 2022 Apr 18. PMID: 35437760; PMCID: PMC9325376.
Torres F, Khan S, Fernandez-Kim SO, Spann R, Albarado D, Wagner TJ, Morrison CD, Soto PL. Dynamic effects of dietary protein restriction on body weights, food consumption, and protein preference in C57BL/6J and Fgf21-KO mice. J Exp Anal Behav. 2022 May;117(3):346-362. doi: 10.1002/jeab.745. Epub 2022 Mar 11. PMID: 35275426; PMCID: PMC9090982.
Soto PL. Single-case experimental designs for behavioral neuroscience. J Exp Anal Behav. 2020 Nov;114(3):447-467. doi: 10.1002/jeab.633. Epub 2020 Oct 27. PMID: 33111347.
Soto PL, Hiranita T. Effects of benztropine analogs on delay discounting in rats. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2020 Dec;237(12):3783-3794. doi: 10.1007/s00213-020-05655-0. Epub 2020 Sep 22. PMID: 32964243; PMCID: PMC7686108.
Hill CM, Qualls-Creekmore E, Berthoud HR, Soto P, Yu S, McDougal DH, Münzberg H, Morrison CD. FGF21 and the Physiological Regulation of Macronutrient Preference. Endocrinology. 2020 Mar 1;161(3):bqaa019. doi: 10.1210/endocr/bqaa019. PMID: 32047920; PMCID: PMC7053867.
Burke SJ, Batdorf HM, Huang TY, Jackson JW, Jones KA, Martin TM, Rohli KE, Karlstad MD, Sparer TE, Burk DH, Campagna SR, Noland RC, Soto PL, Collier JJ. One week of continuous corticosterone exposure impairs hepatic metabolic flexibility, promotes islet β-cell proliferation, and reduces physical activity in male C57BL/6 J mice. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2019 Dec;195:105468. doi: 10.1016/j.jsbmb.2019.105468. Epub 2019 Sep 16. PMID: 31536768; PMCID: PMC6939671.