About Richard Melloni Jr
For over 25 years my academic efforts had been split between teaching in Behavioral Neuroscience and Psychology and leading an actively-funded research program centered on two central themes that complemented one another by focusing on basic and clinical research on the behavioral neurobiology of aggression.
My basic science research focused on identifying and characterizing the strengths of the different neurochemical systems and neural circuits that modulated aggressive behavior and anxiety and determine how pharmacologic influences and social stress and alter the development — thus the strength — of these neural units, effectively altering aggression, anxiety and the relationship between these two behaviors.
My clinical research focused on classifying maladaptive aggressive phenotypes in youth, and identifying novel biological markers and complex social, environmental and psychiatric correlates of maladaptive aggression in this same population.
Since 2021, I have focused my academic efforts on teaching in Behavioral Neuroscience and Psychology. I teach courses in Clinical Neuroanatomy, Biological Psychology, and Neuropsychopharmacology, and Seminar In Biological Psychology.
Dr. Melloni studies the neurobiology of aggressive behavior. The main goal of this research is to understand how drug use and exposure to social stress during adolescence alter brain development and influence aggressive behavior.