Lori’s research explores the complex interrelationships between nutrition, toxicology, and neurobehavioral development. Using rodents as a model for human neural functioning, she manipulates dietary factors, exposure to environmental toxins, and gut-brain communication in the early postnatal period and measures their impact on brain development and complex motivational and cognitive processes in adulthood. Her current projects include determining the influence of direct communication between commensal gut bacteria and the brain in shaping the development of anxiety, depression, and executive functioning.