Federico Sanabria

Federico Sanabria

Associate Professor, Psychology
Assoc Professor, School of Life Sciences Interdisciplinary Graduate faculty
  • federico.sanabria@asu.edu
  • 480-965-4687
  • ‌
  • PSYCHOLOGY BUILDING TEMPE, AZ 85287
  • Mail code: 1104
    Campus: Tempe
  • ‌
Biography Research Teaching Public Work
Previous Next
Long Bio

Federico Sanabria is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University. He received his professional degree in psychology from the Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia), and his master's and doctorate in experimental psychology from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook, under the mentorship of Dr. Howard Rachlin (animal models of choice and self-control). He joined Arizona State University in 2004 as a postdoctoral research associate, under the mentorship of Dr. Peter R. Killeen (quantitative models of motivated behavior; animal models of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and Dr. Janet L. Neisewander (psychopharmacology, with an emphasis on nicotine). In 2008, he joined the faculty in the Behavioral Neuroscience program in the Department of Psychology. He studies basic behavioral and cognitive processes underlying behavioral regulation in various species, and applies this research to the study of psychiatric disorders, primarily substance abuse and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Aside from maintaining a productive laboratory (47 empirical, peer-reviewed publications by 2017), and training and mentoring graduate and undergraduate students, Professor Sanabria has taken multiple leadership roles, including president of the International Society for Comparative Psychology (ISCP), member of the Board of Directors of the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (SEAB), member of the Executive Board of the Society for the Quantitative Analysis of Behavior (SQAB), program board coordinator for the Annual Convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI), and associate editor for Learning & Behavior, and the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. 

Education
  • Ph.D. SUNY at Stony Brook 2004
  • M.A. SUNY at Stony Brook 2002  
  • Professional degree. Psychology, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia 1996

 

 

CV
Curriculum Vitae
Video
Research Website URL
https://psychology.asu.edu/research/labs/basic-behavioral-processes-lab
Google Scholar URL
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=12Tg9NMAAAAJ&hl=en
Research Interests

Experimental research on basic behavioral and cognitive processes underlying behavioral regulation in various species, and the application of this research to the study of psychiatric disorders, primarily substance abuse and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Processes include learning, timing, choice, and response inhibition.

Research Group

Real-time models of behavior. The main purpose of these models is to analytically isolate changes in motivation, learning, and sensorimotor capacity in free-operant performance, such as during the acquisition, maintenance, and extinction of food and drug self-administration. Together, these models have been used to account for spontaneous exploratory behavior (Cabrera et al., 2013), Pavlovian conditioning (Killeen et al., 2009), instrumental behavior (Brackney et al., 2011; Daniels & Sanabria, 2017a) and its disruption (Brackney et al., 2017), adjunctive behavior (Íbias et al., 2015, 2017), choice (Sanabria & Thrailkill, 2009), and timing (Daniels & Sanabria, 2017b). An introductory video is available here.

Response inhibition capacity (RIC). Impulsivity is a broad construct that encompasses multiple behavioral problems, including a reduced capacity to withhold reinforced responses. This capacity is known as response inhibition capacity (RIC); its deficit is a characteristic of multiple psychiatric disorders, including depression and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Our laboratory has validated a method for assessing RIC in animal models (Watterson et al., 2015). We have applied this method to demonstrate (for the first time!) a methylphenidate (Ritalin)-induced enhancement and a stress-induced reduction of RIC in rats (Hill et al., 2012). We have also shown that nicotine reduces RIC in an animal model of ADHD (Mazur et al., 2014). We are currently adapting this method to study RIC in healthy and genetically modified mice. 

Temporal and spatial control of behavior. Our laboratory is concerned with dissociating timing processes from non-timing processes embedded within instrumental behavior (Daniels & Sanabria, 2017b). To accomplish this, our laboratory has examined a novel timing paradigm, has compared performance in this task across species, including humans, and has examined the sensitivity of task performance to nicotine administration. On the spatial dimension, we have demonstrated the contribution of spatial variables (motion and correlation) to Pavlovian sign-tracking (Cabrera et al., 2009; Mazur & Sanabria, 2011). On the olfactory dimension, we have begun exploring how odors are represented in the brains of mice. 

Publications

**Denotes Dr. Sanabria as senior author (typically last). *Denotes Dr. Sanabria as senior collaborating author. +Denotes graduate student under direct supervision of Dr. Sanabria. ^Denotes undergraduate student under direct supervision of Dr. Sanabria. #Denotes visiting scholar in Dr. Sanabria’s laboratory.

Refereed Empirical Research

  1. ^Romero K, +Daniels CW, Gipson CD, **Sanabria F. Suppressive and enhancing effects of nicotine on food-seeking behavior. Behavioural Brain Research 2018, 339:130. PMID: 29175447.
  2. Bell MC, *Sanabria F. Failure to find a distance effect in pigeon choice. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 2017; 108:1. PMID: 28542842.
  3. +Brackney RJ, Cheung THC, **Sanabria F. A bout analysis of operant response disruption. Behavioural Processes 2017; 141:42. PMID: 28431947. Times cited: 1.
  4. +Daniels CW, **Sanabria. About bouts: A heterogeneous tandem schedule of reinforcement reveals dissociable components of operant behavior in Fischer rats. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition 2017; 43:280.
  5. +Daniels CW, **Sanabria F. Interval timing under a behavioral microscope: Dissociating motivational and timing processes in fixed-interval performance. Learning & Behavior 2017; 45:29. PMID: 27443193. Times cited: 3.
  6. #Íbias J, +Daniels CW, Miguéns M, Pellón R, *Sanabria F. The effect of methylphenidate on the microstructure of schedule-induced polydipsia in an animal model of ADHD. Behavioural Brain Research 2017; 333:211. PMID: 28669538.
  7. Jiménez A, *Sanabria F, Cabrera F. The effect of lever height on the microstructure of operant behavior. Behavioural Processes 2017; 140:181. PMID: 28499811. Times cited: 1.
  8. +Watterson E, ^Spitzer A, Watterson LR, +Brackney RJ, Zavala AR, Olive MF, **Sanabria F. Nicotine-induced behavioral sensitization in an adult animal model of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Behavioural Brain Research 2016; 312:333. PMID: 27363925. Times cited: 2.
  9. +Brackney RJ, **Sanabria F. The distribution of response bout lengths and its sensitivity to differential reinforcement. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 2015; 104:167. PMID: 26377437. Times cited: 4.
  10. +Daniels CW, Fox AE, Kyonka EGE, **Sanabria F. Biasing temporal judgments in rats, pigeons, and humans. International Journal of Comparative Psychology 2015; 28. Times cited: 5.
  11. +Daniels CW, +Watterson E, ^Garcia R, +Mazur GJ, +Brackney RJ, **Sanabria F. Revisiting the effect of nicotine on interval timing. Behavioural Brain Research 2015; 283:238. PMID: 25637907. Times cited: 4.
  12. #Íbias J, Pellón R, *Sanabria F. A microstructural analysis of schedule-induced polydipsia reveals incentive-induced hyperactivity in an animal model of ADHD. Behavioural Brain Research 2015; 278:417. PMID: 25447297. Times cited: 8.
  13. +Watterson E, +Daniels CW, Watterson LR, +Mazur GJ, +Brackney RJ, Olive MF, **Sanabria F. Nicotine-induced place conditioning and locomotor activity in an adolescent animal model of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Behavioural Brain Research 2015; 291:184. PMID: 26008156. Times cited: 7.
  14. +Watterson E, +Mazur GJ, **Sanabria F. Validation of a method to assess ADHD-related impulsivity in animal models. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 2015; 252:36. PMID: 25840365. Times cited: 3.
  15. Hoffman AN, Lorson NG, *Sanabria F, Olive MF, Conrad CD. Chronic stress disrupts fear extinction and enhances amygdala and hippocampal Fos-like expression in an animal model of post-traumatic stress disorder. Neurobiology or Learning and Memory 2014; 112:139. PMID: 24508064. Times cited: 20.
  16. +Mazur GJ, ^Wood-Isenberg G, +Watterson E, **Sanabria F. Detrimental effects of acute nicotine on the response-withholding performance of spontaneously hypertensive and Wistar Kyoto rats. Psychopharmacology 2014; 231:2471. PMID: 24414609. Times cited: 7.
  17. **Sanabria F, ^Oldenburg L. Adaptation of timing behavior to a regular change in criterion. Behavioural Processes 2014; 101:58. PMID: 23962672. Times cited: 3.
  18. +Watterson E, **Sanabria F, Zavala AR, Privitera GJ. Response inhibition capacity and short-term memory are robust to the effects of high fat diet during adolescence. Universitas Psychologica 2014; 13:1161. Times cited: 1.
  19. Cabrera F, *Sanabria F, Jimenez AA, Covarrubias P. An affordance analysis of unconditional lever pressing in rats and hamsters. Behavioural Processes 2013; 92:36. PMID: 23073500. Times cited: 18.
  20. +Brackney RJ, Cheung THC, ^Herbst K, +Hill JC, **Sanabria F. Extinction learning deficit in a rodent model of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Behavioral and Brain Functions 2012, 8:59. PMID: 23237608. Times cited: 12.
  21. Cheung THC, Neisewander JL, **Sanabria F. Extinction under a behavioral microscope: Isolating the sources of decline in operant response rate. Behavioural Processes 2012; 90:111. PMID: 22425782. Times cited: 13.
  22. +Hill JC, #Covarrubias P, ^Terry J, **Sanabria F. The effect of methylphenidate and rearing environment on behavioral inhibition in adult male rats. Psychopharmacology 2012; 219:353. PMID: 22057663. Times cited: 12.
  23. +Hill JC, ^Herbst K, **Sanabria F. Characterizing operant hyperactivity in the spontaneously hypertensive rat. Behavioral and Brain Functions 2012; 8:5. PMID: 22277367. Times cited: 30.
  24. ^Mika A, +Mazur GJ, Hoffman AN, Talboom JS, Bimonte-Nelson HA, *Sanabria F, Conrad CD. Chronic stress impairs prefrontal cortex-dependent response inhibition and spatial working memory. Behavioral Neuroscience 2012; 126:605. PMID: 22905921. Times cited: 64.
  25. Peartree NA, Hood LE, Thiel KJ, *Sanabria F, Pentkowski NS, Neisewander JL. Limited physical contact through a mesh barrier is sufficient for social reward-conditioned place preference in adolescent male rats. Physiology & Behavior 2012; 105:749. PMID: 22008744. Times cited: 50.
  26. Peartree NA, *Sanabria F, Thiel KJ, Weber SM, Cheung THC, Neisewander JL. A new criterion for acquisition of nicotine self-administration in rats. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2012; 124:63. PMID: 22243759. Times cited: 15.
  27. +Brackney RJ, Cheung THC, Neisewander JL, **Sanabria F. The isolation of motivational, motoric, and schedule effects on operant performance: A modeling approach. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 2011; 96:17. PMID: 21765544. Times cited: 38.
  28. +Mazur GJ, **Sanabria F. Spatial serial conditioning maintained with minimal temporal contingency. Behavioural Processes 2011; 87:135. PMID: 21238551.
  29. Podlesnik CA, *Sanabria F. Repeated extinction and reversal learning of an approach response support an arousal-mediated learning model. Behavioural Processes 2011; 87:125. PMID: 21172410. Times cited: 6.
  30. Privitera GJ, Zavala AR, *Sanabria F, Sotak K. High fat diet during pre and periadolescence impairs learning of a conditioned place preference in adulthood. Behavioral and Brain Functions 2011; 7:21. PMID: 21703027. Times cited: 17.
  31. Robles E, Roberts NA, *Sanabria F. Dynamics of choice during estimation of subjective value. Behavioural Processes 2011; 87, 34. PMID: 21276839. Times cited: 3.
  32. Barker DJ, Sanabria F, Lasswell A, Thrailkill E, Pawlak AP, Killeen PR. Brief light as a practical aversive stimulus for the albino rat. Behavioural Brain Research 2010; 214:402. PMID: 20600344. Times cited: 20.
  33. Avila I, Reilly MP, Sanabria F, Posadas-Sanchez D, Chavez CL, Banerjee N, Killeen PR, Castañeda E. Modeling operant behavior in the Parkinsonian rat. Behavioural Brain Research 2009; 198:298. PMID: 19073222. Times cited: 27.
  34. Cabrera F, Sanabria F, Shelley D, Killeen PR. The “Lunching” effect: Pigeons track motion towards food more than motion away from it. Behavioural Processes 2009; 82:229. PMID: 19591911. Times cited: 8.
  35. Killeen PR, Sanabria F, Dolgov I. Dynamics of conditioning and extinction. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 2009; 35:447. PMID: 19839699. Times cited: 23.
  36. Thiel KJ, Sanabria F, Neisewander L. Synergistic interaction between nicotine and social rewards in adolescent male rats. Psychopharmacology 2009; 204:391. PMID: 19224200. Times cited: 102.
  37. Thiel KJ, Sanabria F, Pentkowski NS, Neisewander JL. Anti-craving effects of environmental enrichment. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology 2009; 12:1151. PMID: 19691875. Times cited: 69.
  38. **Sanabria F, Thrailkill E. Pigeons (Columba livia) approach Nash Equilibria in experimental Matching Pennies competitions. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 2009; 91:169. PMID: 19794832. Times cited: 7.
  39. Sanabria F, Thrailkill E, Killeen PR. Timing with opportunity cost: Concurrent schedules of reinforcement improve peak timing. Learning & Behavior 2009; 37:217. PMID: 19542089. Times cited: 14.
  40. Acosta JI, Thiel KJ, Sanabria F, Browning JR, Neisewander JL. Effect of schedule of reinforcement on cue reinstatement of cocaine-seeking behavior. Behavioural Pharmacology 2008; 19:129. PMID: 18261220. Times cited: 22.
  41. Sanabria F, Acosta JI, Killeen PR, Neisewander JL, Bizo LA. Modeling the effects of fluoxetine on food-reinforced behavior. Behavioural Pharmacology 2008; 19:61. PMID: 18195595. Times cited: 18.
  42. Sanabria F, Killeen PR. Evidence for impulsivity in the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat drawn from complementary response-withholding tasks. Behavioral and Brain Functions 2008; 4:7. PMID: 18261220. Times cited: 58.
  43. Sanabria F, Killeen PR. Better statistics for better decisions: Rejecting null hypotheses statistical tests in favor of replication statistics. Psychology in the Schools 2007; 44:471. PMID: 19122766. Times cited: 23.
  44. Sanabria F, Killeen PR. Temporal generalization accounts for response resurgence in the peak procedure. Behavioural Processes 2007; 74:126. PMID: 17141981. Times cited: 27.
  45. Bizo LA, Chu JYM, Sanabria F, Killeen PR. The failure of Weber’s Law in time perception and production. Behavioural Processes 2006; 71:201. PMID: 16386378. Times cited: 87.
  46. Sanabria F, Sitomer MT, Killeen, PR. Negative automaintenance omission training is effective. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 2006; 86:1-10. PMID: 16903489. Times cited: 18.
  47. Sanabria F, Baker F, Rachlin, H. Learning by pigeons playing against tit-for-tat in an operant prisoner’s dilemma. Learning & Behavior 2003; 31:318. PMID: 14733481. Times cited: 20.

Theoretical Papers, Chapters, Commentaries, Editorials, and Other Contributions

  1. Sanabria F. Operant conditioning. In J. Vonk & T.K. Shackelford (Eds.) Encyclopedia of animal cognition and behavior (in press). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
  2. Podlesnik CA, Sanabria F. SQAB 2016: Persistence and relapse. Behavioural Processes 2017; 141:1.
  3. Lefebvre VA, Sanabria F. Bipolar choice in the experimental chamber. Psikhologicheskii Zhurnal 2009; 30:65.
  4. Lefebvre VA, Sanabria F. Matching by fixing and sampling: A local model based on internality. Behavioural Processes 2008; 78:204. PMID: 18282666. Times cited: 2.
  5. Sanabria, F. Tools, drugs and signals in the road from evolution to money [Commentary on Lea & Webley]. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2006; 29:193. Times cited: 2.
  6. Sanabria F, Killeen PR. Freud meets Skinner: Hyperbolic curves, elliptical theories and Ainslie Interests [Commentary on Ainslie]. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2005; 28:660. Times cited: 1.
  7. Sanabria F, Killeen PR. All thumbs? [Commentary on Hutchinson & Gigerenzer] Behavioural Processes 2005; 69:143. PMID: 15845300.
  8. Sanabria F. Análisis molar y molecular: Dos visiones de la conducta [Molar and molecular analyses: Two views on behavior]. Universitas Psychologica 2002; 1:27.
  9. Sanabria F. Psychologists on the March [Review of J. H. Capshew]. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología 2000; 32:181.
Research Activity

Ongoing

  • 8/2017 – 7/2018    PI: Brian H. Smith, Federico Sanabria, Richard C. Gerkin, Salvatore Oddo. Odor detection and classification in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. Sponsor: Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium. Total direct costs: $47,780.
  • 7/2017 – 5/2021    PI: Jason Newbern (70%). Co-I: Federico Sanabria (15%), Heather Bimonte-Nelson (15%). Functions of ERK/MAPK signaling in GABAergic circuit development. Sponsor: NIH. Total direct costs: $1,247,099.

Completed

  •  4/2012 – 1/2016    PI: Federico Sanabria (100%). Analysis of instrumental overactivity in an animal model of ADHD. Sponsor: NIH (R03MH094562). Total direct costs: $100,000.
  •  1/2013 – 6/2014    PI: Federico Sanabria (50%), M. Foster Olive (50%). Responsiveness to nicotine in an animal model of ADHD. Seed Funding from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Arizona State University. Total direct costs: $50,000.
  •  9/2011 – 4/2013    PI: Federico Sanabria (100%). Nicotine and impulsivity in an animal model of ADHD. Sponsor: NIDA (R03DA032632). Total direct costs: $75,000.
Courses
2024 Spring
Course Number Course Title
PSY 599 Thesis
BIO 495 Undergraduate Research
2023 Fall
Course Number Course Title
PSY 492 Honors Directed Study
BIO 495 Undergraduate Research
PSY 592 Research
NEU 492 Honors Directed Study
NEU 493 Honors Thesis
2023 Spring
Course Number Course Title
BIO 495 Undergraduate Research
PSY 590 Reading and Conference
PSY 592 Research
PSY 320 Learning and Motivation
2022 Fall
Course Number Course Title
BIO 495 Undergraduate Research
PSY 592 Research
PSY 512 Advanced Learning
2022 Spring
Course Number Course Title
PSY 792 Research
BIO 495 Undergraduate Research
2021 Fall
Course Number Course Title
PSY 792 Research
BIO 495 Undergraduate Research
PSY 320 Learning and Motivation
PSY 420 Analysis of Behavior
2021 Spring
Course Number Course Title
PSY 792 Research
PSY 799 Dissertation
BIO 495 Undergraduate Research
PSY 320 Learning and Motivation
PSY 591 Seminar
2020 Fall
Course Number Course Title
PSY 790 Reading and Conference
PSY 792 Research
BIO 495 Undergraduate Research
PSY 320 Learning and Motivation
2020 Spring
Course Number Course Title
PSY 792 Research
BIO 495 Undergraduate Research
PSY 320 Learning and Motivation
PSY 420 Analysis of Behavior
2019 Fall
Course Number Course Title
PSY 792 Research
BIO 495 Undergraduate Research
PSY 320 Learning and Motivation
2019 Spring
Course Number Course Title
BIO 495 Undergraduate Research
PSY 320 Learning and Motivation
Editorships

Associate Editor     2015 – 2019    Learning & Behavior (Psychonomic Society Journal)     2014 – 2017    Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

Guest Editor     2017 – 2018    Behavioural Processes: Special Issue SQAB 2017 (co-edited with Christopher Podlesnik)         2016 – 2017    Behavioural Processes: Special Issue SQAB 2016 (co-edited with Christopher Podlesnik)

Editorial Boards and Committees     2016 – present    Revista Mexicana de Análisis de la Conducta         2013 – present    Acta Comportamentalia (Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Mexico)     2013 – present    Revista de Psicología (Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile)     2012 – 2014        Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior     2011 – present    Revista Colombiana de Psicología (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) – Scientific Committee     2010 – present    Frontiers in Comparative Psychology – Review Editor     2008 – present    Diversitas: Perspectivas en Psicología (Universidad Santo Tomás, Bogotá, Colombia)     2008 – present    Universitas Psychologica (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia)     2008 – present    Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología (Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz, Bogotá, Colombia)     2008 – present    Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología (Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz, Bogotá, Colombia)

Ad Hoc Reviewer Alcohol and Alcoholism Animal Cognition Avances en Psicología Latinoamericana Behavioural Brain Research Behavioural Processes Biological Psychiatry Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology Epilepsy & Behavior Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Frontiers in Psychology IEEE Transactions in Neural Networks International Journal of Comparative Psychology Learning & Behavior Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition (previously Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes) Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior Journal of Mathematical Psychology Journal of Neuroscience Methods Neuropsychopharmacology Pensamiento Psicológico Physiology & Behavior PLoS ONE Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Psychopharmacology

Professional Associations

    2011 – present    National Hispanic Science Network     2011 – 2012.       Comparative Cognition Society     2009 – present    Society for Neuroscience     2008 – present    Sigma Xi     2008 – present    International Society for Comparative Psychology     2004 – present    Psychonomic Society, Fellow     2004 – 2013        Association for Psychological Science     1999 – present    Society for the Quantitative Analysis of Behavior     1999 – present    Association for Behavior Analysis International     1997 – present    American Psychological Association

Expertise Areas
Animal Behavior
Behavioral Neuroscience
Choice, Addictions, and Impulsivity
Cognitive Science
Computational Modeling
Learning and Memory
Maps and Locations Jobs Directory Contact ASU My ASU
Repeatedly ranked #1 in innovation (ASU ahead of MIT and Stanford), sustainability (ASU ahead of Stanford and UC Berkeley), and global impact (ASU ahead of MIT and Penn State)
Copyright and Trademark Accessibility Privacy Terms of Use Emergency