Office Hours: M 2:00 - 3:00; R 9:00 - 10:00

• Graduate Field Faculty
• Laboratory of Learning and Memory

Interests

My research is focused on a neural systems level analysis of learning and memory processes in rodents. We record the activity of many individual neurons in behaving rats while they learn. This allows us to track the changes in neuronal responses that are associated with the acquisition of learned information. We also use pharmacological agents to temporarily inactivate discrete brain regions while recording neuronal responses in anatomically connected brain regions. This allows us to determine how the loss of that brain region impacts the rat’s ability to learn and how the loss of one part of a neural circuit can affect processing in other parts of the circuit.

Behavioral & Evolutionary Neuroscience

Selected Publications

• Smith, D. M. and Mizumori, S. J. Y. (in press). Hippocampal Place Cells, Context and Episodic Memory. Hippocampus. download
  
  
• Smith, D. M. and Mizumori, S. J. Y. (2006). Context Specific Neuronal Response Patterns and the Role of the Hippocampus in the Encoding of Learning Contexts. Journal of Neuroscience. 26(12):3154-3163. download
  
  
• Smith D. M., Wakeman D., Patel J., Gabriel M. (2004). Fornix Lesions Impair Context-Related Cingulothalamic Neuronal Patterns and Concurrent Discrimination Learning. Behavioral Neuroscience. 118:1225-1239. download
  
  
• Robinson, S., Smith, D. M., Mizumori, S. J. Y., and Palmiter, R.D. (2004). Firing Properties of Dopamine Neurons in Freely-Moving Dopamine-Deficient Mice: Effects of Dopamine Receptor Activation and Anesthesia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, United States of America. 101(36):13329-13334. download
  
  
• Smith, D. M., Freeman, J. H., Jr., Nicholson, D., and Gabriel, M. (2002). Limbic Thalamic Lesions, Appetitively Motivated Discrimination Learning And Learning-Related Neuronal Activity In Rabbits. Journal of Neuroscience. 22(18):8212-21. download
  
  
• Smith, D. M., Monteverde, J., Schwartz, E., Freeman, J. H., Jr., and Gabriel, M. (2001) Lesions in the Central Nucleus of the Amygdala: Effects on Discriminative Avoidance Learning, Discriminative Approach Learning and Cingulothalamic Training-induced Neuronal Activity. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. 76:403-425. download
  
  
• Duvel, A., Smith, D. M., Talk, A., and Gabriel, M. (2001) Medial Geniculate, Amygdalar and Cingulate Cortical Training-induced Neuronal Activity During Discriminative Avoidance Learning in Rabbits with Auditory Cortical Lesions. Journal of Neuroscience. 21(9):3271-81. download
  
  

Links

• Psychology 223: Introduction to Biological Psychology
  Fall 2007 information
  
  

updated on Thursday, Nov 1 2007 @ 4:26pm

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