DM Bannerman Ph.D.
Research Areas
Medical Sciences Division Themes
- Neuroscience
Neuroscience Sub-Themes
- Systems, Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience
- Functional Brain Imaging
- Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Neuroscience Keywords
- Amnesia
- Anxiety
- Associative Learning
- Behaviour
- Cognition
- Decision-Making
- Depression
- Emotion
- Glutamate
- Hebbian Learning
- Hippocampus
- Impulsivity
- Learning and Memory
- Neurogenesis
- Plasticity
- Prefrontal Cortex
- Orbitofrontal Cortex
- Amygdala
- Synaptic Plasticity
- Working Memory
Techniques and Equipment
Group Members
- Stephen McHugh, Post-doctoral researcher
- David Sanderson, Post-doctoral researcher
- Amy Taylor, Graduate research assistant
- Samantha Line, D Phil student
- Kate Burnham, D Phil student
- Erie Boorman, D Phil student
- James Groves, D Phil student
- Paula Croxson, D Phil student
- Carola Romberg, Post-doctoral researcher
Collaborators
- Nick Rawlins, Expt Psychology
- Matthew Rushworth, Expt Psychology
- Mark Baxter, Expt Psychology
- Mark Walton, Expt Psychology
- Trevor Sharp, Pharmacology
- Jonathan Flint, Psychiatry
- Paul Harrison, Psychiatry
- Ole Paulsen, Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics
- Richard Wade-Martins, Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics
- John Lowry, University of Ireland, Maynooth
- Mark Good, University of Cardiff
- Peter Seeburg, MPI, Heidelberg, Germany
- Rolf Sprengel, MPI, Heidelberg, Germany
- Hannah Monyer, University of Heidelberg, Germany
| Department | Department of Experimental Psychology |
|---|
We are particularly interested in the hippocampus and related brain structures and their role, both in learning and memory, and in emotion. We study the role of these brain structures in rodents in a number of ways. For example, we make selective lesions of prescribed brain areas and study their behavioural consequences. We also study the behavioural effects of making intracerebral infusions of selective drugs into specific brain structures. This allows us to ascertain the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie behaviour. Along similiar lines, a large part of our research is concerned with the study of genetically modified mice. We are particular interested in the role of different glutamate receptors in learning and memory. By studying transgenic mice with specific mutations in particular glutamate receptor subunits, we have been able to dissociate different forms of hippocampus-dependent information processing. For example, by disrupting synaptic plasticity processes in the hippocampus we are able to impair hippocampus-dependent spatial working memory but spare hippocampus-dependent spatial reference memory. Finally, in addition to studying the dysfunctional brains of rodents with lesions, drug infusions or genetic modifications, we can also study the functional brains of normal rats as they perform behavioural tasks in the laboratory. For example, we can record oxygen-dependent, voltammetric signals in selected brain areas as rats perform a hippocampus-dependent spatial memory task. As the animal navigates around the maze, there is a specific increase in the oxygen concentration in the dorsal subregion of the hippocampus. This oxygen signal measurement is in some ways analogous to the use of the BOLD singal in fMRI studies in humans. This technique will provide an important link between human and animal studies.
Biography
I graduated from the University of Bristol in 1989 with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Pharmacology before completing a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Univeristy of Edinburgh (1994) with Professor Richard Morris, studying the neurobiology of hippocampal-dependent learning and memory. I have been working in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford since 1995 with Professors Sue Iversen and Nick Rawlins.
Awards Training and Qualifications
- 1986- 1989 B. Sc. (Hons) - Pharmacology, University of Bristol
- 1989- 1994 Ph. D. - Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh
Selected Publications
- Fuchs Elke C, Zivkovic Aleksandar R, Cunningham Mark O, Middleton Steven, Lebeau Fiona EN, Bannerman David M, Rozov Andrei, Whittington Miles A, Traub Roger D, Rawlins J NP, and Monyer Hannah (2007) Recruitment of parvalbumin-positive interneurons determines hippocampal function and associated behavior. Neuron, 53(4):591-604.
- Niewoehner B, Single F N, Hvalby O, Jensen V, Borgloh S MzA, Seeburg P H, Rawlins J NP, Sprengel R, and Bannerman D M (2007) Impaired spatial working memory but spared spatial reference memory following functional loss of NMDA receptors in the dentate gyrus. Eur J Neurosci, 25(3):837-46.
- Bannerman D M, Rawlins J NP, and Good M A (2006) The drugs don't work-or do they? Pharmacological and transgenic studies of the contribution of NMDA and GluR-A-containing AMPA receptors to hippocampal-dependent memory. Psychopharmacology (Berl), 188(4):552-66.
- Schmitt W B, Sprengel R, Mack V, Draft R W, Seeburg P H, Deacon R MJ, Rawlins J NP, and Bannerman D M (2005) Restoration of spatial working memory by genetic rescue of GluR-A-deficient mice. Nat Neurosci, 8(3):270-2.
- McHugh S B, Deacon R MJ, Rawlins J NP, and Bannerman D M (2004) Amygdala and ventral hippocampus contribute differentially to mechanisms of fear and anxiety. Behav Neurosci, 118(1):63-78.
- Schmitt Wolfram B, Arianpour Roozbeh, Deacon Robert MJ, Seeburg Peter H, Sprengel Rolf, Rawlins J NP, and Bannerman David M (2004) The role of hippocampal glutamate receptor-A-dependent synaptic plasticity in conditional learning: the importance of spatiotemporal discontiguity. J Neurosci, 24(33):7277-82.
- Schmitt Wolfram B, Deacon Robert MJ, Seeburg Peter H, Rawlins J NP, and Bannerman David M (2003) A within-subjects, within-task demonstration of intact spatial reference memory and impaired spatial working memory in glutamate receptor-A-deficient mice. J Neurosci, 23(9):3953-9.
- Bannerman D M, Deacon R MJ, Offen S, Friswell J, Grubb M, and Rawlins J NP (2002) Double dissociation of function within the hippocampus: spatial memory and hyponeophagia. Behav Neurosci, 116(5):884-901.
