University of Toronto

Departments of Psychology and Zoology and Program in Neuroscience

Lab staff in 2002

Research Interests and Methods

Research Interests:

--Reward circuits and pharmacology

--Startle reflex circuits and pharmacology

--Relevance to emotion, drug addiction and         schizophrenia

--Gene therapy in drug addiction, memory, schizophrenia and circadian rhythms

 

Behavioral Neuroscience Research Methods:

Brain-stimulation reward

Conditioned place preference

Open-field locomotion

Pharmacology of cholinergic, GABAergic and dopaminergic systems

 

Startle reflex, prepulse inhibition and potentiation of startle

Electrical brain stimulation collision methods (axonal and transynaptic)

Electromyography and latency analysis

 

Genetic and Anatomical Methods:

Knockout mice (M5 muscarinic receptor, D2 dopaminergic receptor and others)

Transgenic mice (M5 muscarinic receptor, casein kinase 1ε and others)

Circadian mutant hamsters (tau mutants)

 

Electroporation of genes

Immunocytochemistry, In situ hybridization, Apoptosis

Fluorescence microscopy (GFP and others)

PCR, Southern, Northern and Western blots

Antisense oligonucleotides (gene knockdown)

Orlando 2002 SFN meeting with

Chuck Blaha’s group