Alexxai Kravitz
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
- Phone: 314-273-7956
- Email: alexxai@nospam.wustl.edu
Additional Titles & Roles
- Division Director for Basic Neuroscience
- Associate Professor of Neuroscience
- Associate Professor of Anesthesiology
- Interim Division Director for Basic Neuroscience
- Co-Director of the PhD Program in Neurosciences
Education & Training
- Ph.D.: University of Pennsylvania, 2009
- B.A.: Wesleyan University, 2001
Research Interests
Dr. Kravitz studies the brain circuits that govern feeding and contribute to obesity. He is particularly interested in how modern diets, especially those high in fat or sugar, can alter brain function and hijack normal reward-processing mechanisms to influence decision-making and future food choices. He also has a strong interest in open-source neuroscience and develops accessible tools for behavioral research, including the widely used FED3 feeding system and other open-source devices for behavioral neuroscience. The Kravitz Lab combines high-throughput behavioral testing with optogenetics and electrical and optical recordings of brain activity to investigate how diet and obesity can alter brain function and behavior.
Recent Publications
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A homecage operant paradigm reveals behavioral dynamics of social motivation in mice
Chen, Y., Maloney, S. E. & Kravitz, A. V., Apr 20 2026, In: Cell Reports Methods. 6, 4, 101374.
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Differential effects of focused ultrasound neuromodulation in Parkinson’s disease mice versus healthy mice
Yang, L., Xu, K., Zhang, D., Stark, A., Yue, Y., Kravitz, A., Yang, Y. & Chen, H., Feb 1 2026, In: Journal of Neural Engineering. 23, 1, 016031.
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Sign- vs. goal-tracking is associated with greater adiposity and altered functional connectivity in response to a naturalistic food paradigm
Papantoni, A., Shearrer, G. E., Taillie, L. S., Shaikh, S. R., Meyer, K. A., Paninos, E., Kravitz, A. V. & Burger, K. S., Nov 1 2025, In: Physiology and Behavior. 301, 115075.
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A simple action reduces high-fat diet intake and obesity in mice
Barrett, M. R., Pan, Y., Murrell, C. L., Karolczak, E. O., Wang, J., Fang, L. Z., Thompson, J. M., Chang, Y. H., Casey, E., Czarny, J. E., So, W. L., Reichenbach, A., Stark, R., Taghipourbibalan, H., Penna, S. R., McCullough, K. B., Westbrook, S. R., Chatterjee Basu, G., Matikainen-Ankney, B. & Cazares, V. A. & 9 others, , Jul 21 2025, In: Current Biology. 35, 14, p. 3303-3314.e2
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MouseVUER: video based open-source system for laboratory mouse home-cage monitoring
Salem, G., Cope, N., Garmendia, M., Pu, A., Somenhalli, A., Krynitsky, J., Cubert, N., Jones, T., Dold, G., Fletcher, A., Kravitz, A., Pohida, T. & Dennis, J., Dec 2024, In: Scientific reports. 14, 1, 2662.