Stephanie Fulton received her graduate training in behavioural beurobiology at Concordia University in Montreal under the mentorship of Drs Peter Shizgal and Barbara Woodside. Her doctoral thesis investigated the impact of peptides involved in energy homeostasis on brain stimulation reward. Her work during this period led to the pivotal discovery that the adipose-derived hormone leptin modulates brain reward circuitry. As a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)-funded postdoctoral fellow, she joined the laboratory of Dr Jeffrey Flier at Harvard Medical School to pursue training in energy metabolism and neuroendocrinology. Her research there identified the influence of leptin on mesolimbic dopamine tone and function. Dr Fulton then returned to Montreal as a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) postdoctoral fellow to study dopamine neurophysiology in the laboratory of Dr Louis-Eric Trudeau where she explored the presynaptic regulation of striatal dopamine release. In 2008, Dr Fulton became a member of the Montreal Diabetes Research Center and was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine at Université de Montréal and principle investigator at the Université de Montréal Hospital Research Center (CRCHUM). Her laboratory is situated in the newly constructed CRCHUM research building. Dr Fulton holds a CIHR New Investigator award and was awarded the 2013 FRQ – Cardiometabolic, Diabetes and Obesity research network (CMDO) Young Investigator prize. Her research is currently supported by grants from CIHR, NSERC and Sunlife Financial.

Our laboratory studies the neural pathways and mechanisms involved in food-motivated behaviour and emotional states. Peripherally-derived metabolic signals can directly modulate mesolimbic dopamine neurons, an important component of the neural circuitry controlling motivation, reward and emotional function. We are investigating how hormones and nutrients alter dopamine and other reward-related pathways to affect feeding, food-motivated behaviour and preference for foods high in fat and sugar. We are also interested in the neural adaptations that may occur in response to consumption of palatable, high-energy foods and their contribution to over-eating, the development of obesity and mood disorders like depression.