Lehmann, H., Sparks, F.T., Spanswick, S.C., Hadikin, C., McDonald, R.J., & Sutherland, R.J. (2009). Making context memories independent of the hippocampus. Learn Mem, 16, 417-420.
The primary focus of my research program is to determine the contributions of different brain structures to learning, memory, and emotion. Specific aims are to: 1) understand the neural circuits involved in acquiring, storing, and retrieving memory; 2) delineate the mechanisms involved in long-term consolidation and temporally graded retrograde amnesia; and 3) determine how deficits in emotion may undermine mnemonic function. Related research projects normally involve assessing whether surgical lesions and pharmacological manipulations in rats cause anterograde and/or retrograde amnesia as well as changes in fear and anxiety in several types of behavioural paradigms.
A second focus of my research program is to examine the means to reverse or attenuate cognitive deficits, such as memory loss, by promoting regeneration of damaged brain circuitry. Projects examine the effects of promoting neurogenesis with different treatments (e.g., growth factor, enriched environment) on recovery of mnemonic function from a cellular to a behavioural level.