Network of European Neuroscience Institutes (ENI-NET)
The focus of my work is in the neural basis of learning and memory in rodents. More specifically the work currently is investigating the involvement of different brain regions in memory function. Initially our work focussed on the relative contributions of medial temporal obe structures, particularly the perirhinal cortex (PRH) and hippocampal formation (HPC) to recognition and spatial memory function. Importantly our research demonstrated a doubel dissociaition in the effects of PRH and HPC ablation on spatial and recognition memory.
Understanding the role of the PRH in recognition memory continues to be one of the central themes of my research, but more recently we have turned our attention to understanding encoding, storage and retrieval processes in this and anatomically connected brain regions such as the prefrtonal cortex and diencephalon (Warburton et al., 03; Barker et al 2006;07;08). Broadly the research currently divides into studies investigating:
1) the interactions between the PRH and other neural regions in recognition memory
2) the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying recognition memory in these regions.
Please see also: http://www.bris.ac.uk/phys-pharm/people/15754/overview.html
5 Selected Publications
Barker GRI., Warburton, EC. (2013) Object-in-place associative recognition memory depends on glutamate receptor neurotransmission within two defined hippocampal-cortical circuits: A critical role for AMPA and NMDA receptors in the hippocampus, perirhinal and prefrontal cortices. Cereb. Cortex., Epub ahead of print.
Cross L., Brown MW., Aggleton JP., and Warburton EC. (2013) The medial dorsal thalamic nucleus and the medial prefrontal cortex of the rat function together to support associative recognition and recency but not item recognition. Learn Mem., 20 (1) : 41-50.
Carunana D., Warburton EC., Bashir, ZI. (2011) Induction of activity-dependent LTD requires muscarinic receptor activation in medial prefrontal cortex. J Neurosci., 31 (50) : 18464-78.
Barker GRI., Warburton EC. (2011) When is the hippocampus involved in recognition memory. J. Neurosci., 31 (18) : 10721-31.
Barker GRI., Warburton EC. (2008) NMDA receptor plasticity in the perirhinal and prefrontal cortices is crucial for the acquisition of long-term object-in-place associative memory. J. Neurosci., 28 (11) : 2837-44.
A full publication record can be found here.
Awards, Fellowships and Honours
1989 Glaxo Group Research Prize Scholarship (PhD) (until 1992)