J.N.P. Rawlins FMedSci
Research Areas
Medical Sciences Division Themes
- Neuroscience
Neuroscience Sub-Themes
Techniques and Equipment
Group Members
- Dr Robert Deacon, OXION funded research scientist
- Dr David Sanderson, BBSRC funded post-doctoral researcher
Collaborators
- Dr David Bannerman, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow, Experimental Psychology, Oxford
- Professor Peter Seeburg, Director Max Planck Institute for Medical Biology, Heidelberg
- Dr Rutsuko Ito, Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow, Experimental Psychology, Oxford
- Dr Mark Walton, Wellcome Trust Advanced Training Fellow, Experimental Psychology, Oxford
- Professor Frances Ashcroft, Director, OXION initiative, Oxford
- Professor Jonathan Flint, Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow, WTCHG, Oxford
- Professor Hannah Monyer, University of Heidelberg
- Professor Hugh Perry, University of Southampton
- Dr Mark Good, University of Cardiff
- Dr Rolf Sprengel, Max Planck Institute for Medical Biology, Heidelberg
| Web | Personal Website |
|---|---|
| nick.rawlins@psy.ox.ac.uk | |
| Email (PA) | caroline.waring@psy.ox.ac.uk |
| Department | Department of Experimental Psychology |
| College | University College |
I am an author on 188 articles published to date.
My work lies broadly within behavioural neuroscience. Its particular emphasis is on the design and application of new behavioural paradigms to analyse CNS function, particularly in memory and emotion.
In the mid-70s, I worked on hippocampal electrophysiology in Per Andersen’s laboratory in Oslo, and in Jeffrey Gray’s laboratory in Oxford. My early behavioural work was concerned with anti-anxiety drugs and the role of the hippocampus in anxiety. Work at John Hopkins with David Olton involved the development of spatial working memory tasks for rats (118 citations), which have become increasingly widely used for studies of hippocampal function in mice which was followed by a joint project with Richard Morris which showed that hippocampal damage impaired spatial memory performance in the watermaze, using what has become a standard procedure for assessing hippocampal dysfunction in rats (2274 citations).
I published a new theory of hippocampal function in 1985 (326 citations). Work with John Aggleton assessed the effects of hippocampal damage on object recognition memory (253 citations), while a study with Gordon Winocur was the first direct demonstration of hippocampal lesion-induced abnormalities in contextual conditioning (82 citations). At the end of the decade, I designed a paradigm with Ray Lund and my graduate student, Coffey, that allowed us to demonstrate that implanted retinal grafts could mediate visually-based learned behaviour as effectively as a normal eye (104 citations).
In the late 80s and 90s I started to work on animal models of schizophrenia, followed by studies in human patients, leading to a new theory of the neurobiology of schizophrenia with Gray and others (510 citations). Towards the end of the 90s I started to work in functional imaging and designed a new paradigm with my graduate student, Ploghaus, to differentiate the neural substrates underlying the experience of pain from those underlying its prediction (260 citations).
In the present decade my lab has developed mouse behavioural technology, working with genetically engineered mice prepared in Peter Seeburg’s lab, which have dysfunctions in specific glutamate receptor subtypes; mice with experimentally induced prion infections with Hugh Perry; and transgenic mice with human disease genes. We have recently deployed the behavioural techniques that we have developed in a large study relating genotype to phenotype in collaboration with Jonathan Flint.
Recent publications mainly concern mouse behavioural phenotyping coupled with genetic manipulations or genotyping analyses and include articles in Neuron (2007); Cell (2007); Nature Protocols (2006); Nature Genetics (2006 & 2004); Nature Neuroscience (2005 & 2002); Journal of Neuroscience (2005, 2004, 2003, 2001).
Sources of Funding
Biography
As an MRC-funded graduate student in the mid-70s, I worked on hippocampal electrophysiology and behaviour in Jeffrey Gray’s laboratory in Oxford. During this time I was awarded a Visiting Research Studentship by the European Training Plan in Brain and Behaviour Research which took me to Per Andersen’s laboratory in Oslo to study lamellar organisation in the rat hippocampus. My early behavioural work was primarily concerned with anti-anxiety drugs and the role of the septo-hippocampal system in anxiety. I took up an MRC funded post-doctoral research assistantship with Gray, and was elected to a Weir Junior Research Fellowship at University College, Oxford, before being awarded a Fogarty Foundation Fellowship to work at John Hopkins with David Olton.
I was appointed to a University Lectureship at the Department of Experimental Psychology in 1983. Collaborative work with John Aggleton at the University of Durham assessed the effects of hippocampal damage on object recognition memory and a collaboration with Gordon Winocur at Trent University, Ontario, studied the role fo the hippocampus in contextual conditioning . At the end of the decade, I worked with Ray Lund and my then graduate student, Peter Coffey on assessments of behavioural functions of implanted retinal grafts.
In the late 80s and 90s I started to work on animal models of schizophrenia, followed by studies in human patients, leading to a new theory of the neurobiology of schizophrenia with Gray, at the Institute of Psychiatry. Towards the end of the 90s I started to work in functional imaging and designed a new paradigm with Irene Tracey and my graduate student Alex Ploghaus, to differentiate the neural substrates underlying the experience of pain from those underlying its prediction. I was awarded the title of Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience in 1998.
In the present decade my lab has developed mouse behavioural technology, working with genetically engineered mice prepared in Peter Seeburg’s lab, which have dysfunctions in specific glutamate receptor subtypes; mice with experimentally induced prion infections with Hugh Perry at Southampton University; and transgenic mice with human disease genes. We have recently deployed the behavioural techniques that we have developed in a large study relating genotype to phenotype in collaboration with Jonathan Flint. I became Watts Professor of Psychology in 2005.
From 1995-2007 I was a member of an continuous series of Wellcome Trust fellowship and funding panels.
Awards Training and Qualifications
- 1971 BA (1st class) in Psychology and Physiology, University of Oxford
- 1977 D.Phil, University of Oxford
- 2006 Fellow of Academy of Medical Sciences
- 1971- 1975 MRC studentship, Oxford University Department of Experimental Psychology
- 1973- 1973 Visiting Research Studentship, European Training Programme in Brain and Behaviour Research
- 1979- 1981 Weir Junior Research Fellow, University College, Oxford
- 1979- 1980 Fogarty Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, NIH
- 1981- 1983 Henry Head Fellow in Neurology, The Royal Society
- 1981- 1987 Senior Research Fellow, University College, Oxford
- 1987- 2005 Sir Jules Thorne Fellow, University COllege, Oxford
- 1998- 2005 Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Oxford
- 2005 Watts Professor of Psychology, University of Oxford
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.
- Keays David A, Tian Guoling, Poirier Karine, Huang Guo-Jen, Siebold Christian, Cleak James, Oliver Peter L, Fray Martin, Harvey Robert J, Molnar Zoltan, Pinon Maria C, Dear Neil, Valdar William, Brown Steve DM, Davies Kay E, Rawlins J NP, Cowan Nicholas J, Nolan Patrick, Chelly Jamel, and Flint Jonathan (2007) Mutations in alpha-tubulin cause abnormal neuronal migration in mice and lissencephaly in humans. Cell, 128(1):45-57.
- Deacon Robert MJ and Rawlins J NP (2006) T-maze alternation in the rodent. Nat Protoc, 1(1):7-12.
- Valdar William, Solberg Leah C, Gauguier Dominique, Burnett Stephanie, Klenerman Paul, Cookson William O, Taylor Martin S, Rawlins J NP, Mott Richard, and Flint Jonathan (2006) Genome-wide genetic association of complex traits in heterogeneous stock mice. Nat Genet, 38(8):879-87.
- 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.
- 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.
- Yalcin Binnaz, Willis-Owen Saffron AG, Fullerton Jan, Meesaq Anjela, Deacon Robert M, Rawlins J NP, Copley Richard R, Morris Andrew P, Flint Jonathan, and Mott Richard (2004) Genetic dissection of a behavioral quantitative trait locus shows that Rgs2 modulates anxiety in mice. Nat Genet, 36(11):1197-202.
- 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.
- Reisel D, Bannerman D M, Schmitt W B, Deacon R MJ, Flint J, Borchardt T, Seeburg P H, and Rawlins J NP (2002) Spatial memory dissociations in mice lacking GluR1. Nat Neurosci, 5(9):868-73.
- Ploghaus A, Tracey I, Gati J S, Clare S, Menon R S, Matthews P M, and Rawlins J N (1999) Dissociating pain from its anticipation in the human brain. Science, 284(5422):1979-81.
